Where Have You Been?
by Leamy Alone
Summary: Harry left after the war with no explanation, and has been gone for four years. What happens when he runs into a certain red head who demands to know everything?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! So this is my first fic in a while. I really need a beta for this story and another one of my she's the man fics, so anyone who's interested, please please please let me know. I know I always seem to leave my stories hanging, but I really like this one and I actually have a plan for it somewhat, so I'm going to try really hard for that not to happen. Anywhooo, happy reading! **

Chapter One

It's been four years since Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort. Four years since the lightning bolt scar on his forehead had pained him. Four years since he fled to America . And four years since he has seen anyone from the Wizarding World he used to be a part of.

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Harry Potter woke with a start. He had heard a crash coming from the living room of the house he shared with three of his friends. He opened the drawer in his bedside table and pulled out his wand. Just because he wasn't a part of the Wizarding World, didn't mean he didn't use magic anymore. He proceeded cautiously to his bedroom door and opened it quietly. He knew that Voldemort was gone, along with most of his Death Eaters, but he couldn't help but be a little bit paranoid.

There was another crash and a muttered curse, this time coming from the kitchen. Harry quietly but quickly made his way to the kitchen and flicked on the light, his wand at the ready. The person in the kitchen gave a small shriek, and Harry quickly put his wand into his pocket, realizing the 'intruder' was just one of his roommates.

"Good god, Harry. Give me a heart attack why don't you?" Emily Hadley said, clutching her hand to her heart and breathing heavily. Harry surveyed the kitchen noticing a Tupperware container of leftover spaghetti and a fork on the floor.

"Sorry. I just heard a crash and thought someone was breaking in or something. But I see you just dropped your dinner... breakfast? What time is it?"

"Around three a.m. An intruder? Really Harry? I think you should just go back to sleep." Emily bent down and picked up her dropped food, dishing some out onto a plate and placing it into the microwave. She glanced at Harry. "What would have done if I was an intruder? You don't have a weapon or anything. Were you just going to dazzle them with your outstanding good looks?" She joked.

Harry chuckled and patted the wand in his back pocket. "No, I'm not sure what I was doing. I think you're right, I'm going to go back to sleep. Goodnight."

"Night Harry."

Harry woke again that day, this time around eight o'clock, and because his alarm was going off. He sat up and turned off the alarm, stretching and yawning. He rubbed his eyes and shook the sleep out of his brain, getting up to go shower.

Once he was showered and dressed he headed into the kitchen for breakfast where his three roommates, Emily, Jake, and Ben were already gathered, all eating cereal and leaning against the counter.

"You know, we do have a table." Harry said, grabbing himself a bowl and snatching the cereal box away from Jake, who had been trying to hide it for himself. That boy ate so much it was astounding. Harry poured his breakfast, handed the box back to Jake and sat at the table, like a normal person.

"So Harry," Jake began, his mouth full of food. Emily rolled her eyes and scolded, "Don't talk with your mouth full." Harry chuckled, the scene reminding him so much of Ron and Hermione, it almost hurt. He quickly pushed those thoughts out of his mind.

Jake made a big deal of chewing his food and swallowing before he started talking again, "So, as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted. Your birthday is next week. The big 21! What do you want to do?"

Harry sighed, "Same thing as every other birthday: Nothing."

"Oh, come on, Harry," Ben said, "You only turn 21 once."

"Yeah, so?"

"Why do you hate your birthday so much Harry? You never let us do anything." Emily complained, crossing her arms.

"I don't hate my birthday. I just don't think it's that big a deal. You shouldn't have to fuss over me and plan a big party or anything." He said, shrugging. They had this same conversation every year since Harry's eighteenth birthday, and it was getting kind of old.

"But we want to!" Emily exclaimed. "You're our friend and we want you to have a good birthday."

"I will have a good birthday, it doesn't matter if you guys get me anything or not. Which you shouldn't." Harry knew this conversation was pointless, they always got him presents and threw him a party.

Emily sighed, exasperated, "Fine! But you have to go to the mall with me today to help me pick out a dress for my sister's graduation." She smirked at him.

Harry groaned, "Why me? Make Ben do it!"

Ben shook his head vehemently, "No way! I went last time!" Harry glared at him.

"Jake?" He asked feebly, knowing there wasn't enough money in the world to make Jake go shopping with Emily.

Emily scoffed, "Are you kidding, he has as much fashion sense as a turtle. You're going."

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"What about this one?" Emily said, stepping out of the dressing room for what felt like the hundredth time in a dress that looked just like all the other ones.

"Yea, it's great. You look really pretty." Harry said (again), sitting on a bench, with his head against the wall, trying to look like he was paying attention.

Emily sighed, "You've said that about all of them."

"Well, they're all great," Harry said lamely. Emily rolled her eyes. She disappeared back into the dressing room and emerged again a minute later in her normal jeans and t-shirt.

"Come on," She said, pulling Harry off the bench and dragging him out of the store.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked, still being pulled down the hall by Emily. She was a lot stronger than she looked.

"We are buying you a birthday present."

"What? No. Emily, come on. You don't have to do that." Harry argued, but Emily wouldn't have it.

"You are getting a present, Potter, whether you like it or not." She pulled him into a music store. He looked around and saw he was surrounded by rows and rows of CD's. He sighed. He never really listened to Muggle music. The Dursley's didn't let him and the Weasley's didn't know any.

"Take your pick. You can have anything in the store." Emily said, smiling.

Harry grabbed the CD closest to him and handed it to Emily. "Here. I want this."

Emily raised her eyebrow and showed him the CD. On the cover was a giant purple dinosaur and a bunch of little kids. "The Barney and Friends soundtrack?" She placed the CD back on the shelf. "For real, Harry. I want to buy you something for your birthday."

Harry sighed and began wondering the store, Emily close behind him. He went down isle after isle, looking for a familiar name that he could pass off as knowing, when he heard someone say his name.

"Harry?" The voice was painfully familiar and Harry didn't look up, knowing he would only be disappointed when the person wasn't who he thought it would be. There was no way. "Harry Potter?" The voice said again. Harry looked up this time, he had to. It sounded too much like…

"Ginny?" Harry gasped. Sure enough, when he looked up, his green eyes met all too familiar brown ones that could only belong to one person.

"Harry!" There was a flash of red hair and suddenly he was being pulled into a bone crushing hug, which he returned wholeheartedly. The hug was interrupted by a sharp smack on the head. "Where the hell have you been?!" Ginny demanded, stepping back and putting her hands on her hips. My god she looks like her mother. Harry rubbed the back of his head with a grimace. "You just left, Harry. Without a word. We woke up one day and you were gone." Her voice had softened, and now she looked more hurt than angry.

Harry looked down at his shoes, avoiding her gaze. "I know, and I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone. But now isn't really the time or place to explain everything." Harry said. He glanced over at Emily, who was staring at the exchange with a mixture of amusement and confusion.

At Harry's glance, Ginny noticed Emily for the first time. "Uh, Emily, this is Ginny, a… friend from school back home. Ginny this is Emily, one of my roommates." Emily smiled at Ginny and waved a little, Ginny only smirked back.

"So, what are you doing here Ginny?" Harry asked.

A smile lit up her face, despite her attempts to remain angry. "I'm an Auror now. I'm here on work." She said proudly.

"Really, Gin? That's great. Congratulations." Harry said. He really was proud of Ginny. He knew how hard she had worked during the war. She would make a great Auror. Harry only hoped that Emily had missed the term, seeing as she would know what an Auror was. Judging by the confused look on her face, she had noticed.

"An Auror? What's that?" Emily asked.

Ginny looked at Harry and raised an eyebrow. He knew she was surprised that Emily wasn't a witch.

"It's like a police officer." Harry said. Emily nodded, but still looked a little confused. "How long are you here?" Harry asked Ginny.

"A few months."

"Want to go out to dinner tomorrow? I'll explain everything." Harry promised.

Ginny thought for a moment before nodding yes.

"Alright great. Well, see you tomorrow then." Harry hugged her again, tightly, and whispered in her ear, "God, I missed you Gin."

Harry headed off with Emily after his strange encounter with Ginny. He could not believe that he had just seen her again. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. Her bright red hair was long, it fell down past her shoulders, and she had that fire in her eyes that Harry hadn't seen since before the war.

Harry and Emily left the store without buying anything and went back to dress shopping. Harry was being even less helpful now. All he could think about was Ginny.

After the fourth time of asking Harry the same question, still with no response, Emily sighed and sat on the bench next to Harry.

"Who was that girl Harry?" She asked. Harry's eyes snapped to her, like he was just noticing she was sitting next to him.

"I told you. She's an old friend."

Emily rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid. I know she was more than that. Why don't you ever talk about your life before you came here? Why did you come here in the first place?"

"It's a long, complicated story that wouldn't make a lick of sense."

"Try me. Where'd you grow up?"

" Surrey. With my aunt, uncle and cousin."

"What about your parents?"

"They died when I was a baby."

Emily look shocked. "Oh, I'm sorry. Why haven't you ever mentioned that before? I've known you for four years Harry. That's kind of important information to withhold."

"Yea, I know. It just never came up. I don't remember them anyway. I was one when they died. That dress is great. You should get it."

Emily saw that he was obviously dodging the rest of her questions, but she let him get away with it and played along. "You think so?" He nodded. "Let me go change then. I'll get it."

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Harry woke the next day feeling oddly chipper. He got out of bed, showered, dressed and made his way into the kitchen where, as always, everyone was standing around the counter eating their cereal. He, again, took a seat at the table. He hummed quietly to himself as he ate, not really paying much attention to his friends until Jake plopped down on the chair next to him and stared at him for a long time.

"What are you looking at?" Harry asked.

"You were humming." Jake said, as if it explained everything.

"Yea, so? I was humming, big deal."

"Why are you so happy today? I have never once heard you hum. I have lived with you for three and a half years and never have you hummed. You're too bitter to hum." Harry rolled his eyes at the 'bitter' comment. He was not bitter. "And you didn't get on us for not using the table. Like you do every single day. What's going on?"

"He's got a date tonight." Emily said. Harry glared at her.

A huge smile broke out on Jake's face. "Finally! Who with? Where'd you meet her?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "It's not a date. I'm eating dinner with a friend that I've known since I was twelve."

"That, Harry, is a date." Ben chimed in. It was now his turn to be glared at.

The rest of breakfast passed without much ado. As everyone left to go to work or where ever they went during the day, Harry stayed behind to clean up. As soon as he was sure everyone was gone, he withdrew is wand from his back pocket and waved it through the air, everything immediately falling into place, bright and clean. He loved magic, it made everything so much easier.

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It was finally six o'clock and everyone was back at home. Harry was in the bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror anxiously. He took in his five o'clock shadow that never really seemed to go away, his bright green eyes, and lightning bolt scar. He didn't know why he was nervous, it wasn't like this was a date or anything. And it was just Ginny. He'd eaten dinner with her plenty of times before.

"Harry," He heard Ben's voice, followed by pounding on the door and a muffled, 'cut it out Jake,' "Let's go man, you're taking forever. I thought you said this wasn't a date." Harry could almost feel the smile the smile in his voice.

"Oh, sod off." Harry muttered, glancing at himself in the mirror one more time before exiting the room and found his three friends waiting for him. They were all lined up against the wall and looking at him like they were sending their only child off to his first prom. Harry sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Goodbye, guys," He said, making his way to the door.

"Oh! Harry, do you need the car keys?" Emily asked, holding them out to him. Harry shook his head. Driving still freaked him out a little.

"No, I'll just walk."

"Walk? Harry it's pretty far away."

"It's fine. I like walking." His friends all raised their eyebrows, but didn't say anything else. Harry quickly exited the house and headed down the street. As soon as he was out of eyesight from his friends, who he knew were watching through the window, he turned on the spot and Apparated to a small Wizard hotel, not unlike the Leaky Cauldron, where Ginny was staying.

He walked up to the front and asked for Ginny Weasley, liking how in America , no one stared at his scar when he talked to them, even if they were from the Wizarding World. Ginny appeared walking down the stairs a few minuets later, looking absolutely gorgeous. Her long red hair was down and lightly curled, framing her face. She was wearing simple blue jeans, a dark blue t-shirt, with black Converse All Stars.

"Hey, Gin." Harry said as she walked toward him.

"Ron and Hermione didn't believe me when I told them I saw you again." Ginny said as way of greeting. Harry supposed he shouldn't have expected him to be welcomed back with open arms, he had pretty much just abandoned everybody.

Harry nodded and smiled, "Are they angry with me?"

Ginny contemplated for a moment, before shaking her head slowly, "No, I don't think anyone is _angry_ with you, per say. That's all faded. Now, we're just all hurt. Why'd you leave?"

Harry sighed and ushered her out the door, "I'll explain at dinner." Ginny got the feeling he was dodging the question, in true Harry fashion, but allowed herself to be showed out the door and into the busy street. This little place was amazing, just like everything else magical, but it had nothing on Diagon Alley. After the war, it had been in shambles, everything empty and abandoned, but now, things were beginning to turn back into what they used to be and everything was great again.

"Where are we going?" Ginny asked as Harry pulled her down the street.

"It's a surprise."

After the uncomfortable but short sensation of Apparation, Harry and Ginny arrived at the restaurant. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was nice and quaint. They were lead to a small table in the back of the restaurant and took their seats. They ordered their drinks and sat in a semi-awkward silence.

"So, what were you doing at the Muggle mall yesterday?" He asked, trying to start a conversation.

"I thought I'd get something for dad while I was here. He's always like eclectronic things the best, so I thought that would be a good place to start." Harry smiled at her mispronunciation. "So lets get to the real point of why we're here. As much as I would love to catch up with you, we can do that some other time. Now explain. Why'd you leave?"

Harry sighed and put his head in his hands, "I left because I couldn't handle it. I couldn't deal with the aftermath of the war. I had to go, had to get out and find a place where no one knew me. So I came here. The war didn't really hit over here in the States. I'm not 'famous' here." He finally looked up at Ginny, who looked mildly surprised, but didn't say anything, allowing Harry to continue. "Everything was ruined. Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Mad-Eye were all dead. Nothing was the same and I couldn't be around to deal with it. I never meant to be gone for so long, but I was scared to come back. I thought everyone would me mad at me. And the longer I thought about it the longer I was gone, until eventually when I was ready to come back I thought it would have been too long."

At the end of his little speech, Ginny took his hand in hers on top of the table. "Harry, you could have come back at any time. Sure we were all a little angry with you for just up and leaving, but we were more worried than angry. We just wanted to know where you were and if you were ok."

"I know, I'm sorry." The waitress came by then with their food and Ginny withdrew her hand from Harry's.

They ate in silence for a few minuet before Ginny asked, "So, who was that girl you were with yesterday at the store?"

Harry smiled a little to himself at the slight hint of jealousy in her voice. "That was Emily. She's my roommate."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "You roommate? You live with her?" Harry nodded.

"Yea, her and two other blokes." The corners of Ginny's mouth twitched a little and she looked slightly more at ease. "And one of them is her boyfriend. Or at least should be. They remind me so much of Ron and Hermione it hurts sometimes. Enough about me though. I'm boring. How's everyone else."

"As good as they can be I suppose. Ron and Hermione live together now. Ron just bought an engagement ring, too. Now all he needs is the ability to not piss himself when he asks her." She chuckled to herself. "Mum's as crazy as ever. And she's even more over-protective now, if that's even possible. George is okay, I guess. Not really his old self, but what could you expect? He's with Katie Bell, and he's been smiling a lot more. And he's gotten back to cracking jokes about his ear."

Harry sighed. He had missed everything. Ron and Hermione, his two best friends since they were eleven years old were going to get married soon and he hadn't even been there.

"What about Bill and Fleur? And Percy, what happened with him?"

Ginny smiled, "Bill and Fleur had the cutest little baby girl ever. She's two years old. They named her Molly, naturally." They both laughed at this. "And Percy's back in the family. He's engaged to Penelope Clearwater, they're getting married this summer. He's his old self pretty much: pompous and pigheaded, but it's nice to have him back."

Harry looked at Ginny for a long time while they ate. She looked basically the same as she did before he left. She was more grown up, her hair was longer, but she was still Ginny. But Harry noticed that the spark in her eye that had been there since the day he met her wasn't as bright, if it was there at all.

"And what about you Ginny? How are you?"

She looked up at him with her beautiful brown eyes, and gave a little half-hearted smile.

"I'm okay. I'm better than I was. You know, it's been four years. That's plenty of time to adjust right?" She sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than Harry.

Harry shrugged, "Not always. Sometimes it takes your whole life. And take it from someone who knows: when someone important in your life suddenly isn't there anymore, nothing goes back to how it was before. You just have to keep going."

Ginny dropped her gaze back down to her food and nodded a little.

They finished their food, paid the check and were on their way out the door. Ginny took Harry's hand while they were walking down the street and Harry squeezed it reassuringly. Neither of them was ready to leave quite yet.

"So, you're an Auror now? That's amazing. And you're here on business? Am I allowed to know what it is?" Harry asked.

"Nope." Ginny said, swinging their intertwined hands back and forth. "It's super top-secret classified stuff. I'm that important." She joked. "Not really. I'm just here because no one else wanted to be. We always have someone in every major country just to make sure everything is okay, you know. And I volunteered, thought it would be cool to see the rest of the world." She smiled up at him.

They reached Ginny's hotel and paused in front of the door. Neither of them really wanted to leave each other's company, but they both knew they had to eventually.

"So I guess this is it, then." Harry said. Ginny nodded, but didn't let go of his hand.

"I suppose so."

'God,' Harry thought, 'When did my life turn into some lame teen movie?'

Before Harry could say anything else, Ginny stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a quick peck on the lips. At Harry's look of surprise, she just shrugged.

"I expect to be seeing you again, you know. This wasn't just a one time thing. I'm not going to let you just slip away again."

Harry smiled, "Didn't plan on it."

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**alright, so there ya have it. Chapter one. Remember I need a beta!!!!!! Please help me! and review! see ya next time (which will hopefull be soon) :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ok, there it is, chapter two. I was kind of hesitant to post this, because I still don't have a beta, and I don't really want to continue too far on without one. So please, please someone be my beta! Or at least tell me how to get one, so I can continue writing this. I love this story, it gives me something to do while I'm in chemistry class. :) Anyway, enjoy. And REVIEW!!!!  
**

Harry crept into his house after he got back from dinner with Ginny, hoping to avoid his roommate's questions. But, of course he had no such luck.

"Hey, Harry, how'd it go?" Jake asked after Harry flicked on the light in the living room, revealing his friends lounging around… in the dark...waiting for him to get home. Nearly gave him a heart attack.

"It was fine. We just had dinner. Two old friends having dinner, like I told you." Harry said, trying to make his way out of the living room and away from the annoying questions.

"Are we gonna get to meet her?" Ben asked. "If she's your girlfriend, I only think it's only fair."

Harry sighed and threw his hands up in the air, "She's not my girlfriend! I've told you that already. Maybe you will, maybe you won't. I don't know. I'll let you know when I know. She's here on work, I don't know what she's doing."

They talked for a while longer, which mainly consisted them asking questions, Harry dodging them and them asking again hoping he would slip up and answer one until Harry got annoyed and went to bed.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Harry and Ginny spent more time together throughout the next week. They mostly hung out in the Wizarding side of the city, doing what they did when they were teenagers at Hogwarts on a Hogsmeade weekend. Today, though, they decided to stay in the Muggle area.

"Oh my god, what is that?" Ginny said pointing a coin activated horse outside of a grocery store.

Harry laughed at her, "It's a kid's ride. You put a quarter in the slot and it moves back and forth, like you're riding a horse, kind of. Here look." Harry dug in his pocket and pulled out a shiny silver coin and put it in the coin slot on the side of the little horse. It immediately began making horse sounds and rocking slowly back and forth.

Ginny looked alarmed, "I didn't expect it to make sound! How'd they do that?"

Harry smiled widely and shook his head, shrugging, "I have no idea, Gin. It just does. There's a little speaker over there. We should go now, people are starting to stare. Most adults don't play with the children's rides outside of the grocery store." He grabbed her elbow and pulled her away. She glanced back every now and then at the little horse that was still moving, amazement written across her face.

"Muggles are amazing. They manage to get on so well. If I didn't have magic, I don't know what I would do. Why did you choose to go back to the Muggle world, anyway Harry? I thought you hated it when you were a kid." Ginny said, looking over at him. He avoided her gaze.

"I didn't hate the Muggle world. I just hated the Muggles I lived with. And I came back to it because no one knows who Harry Potter is in the Muggle world, Gin. That's whole reason I left Britain in the first place." He shrugged, and quickly changed the subject, "So, you want to come back to my house? It's getting kind of cold out. I can make you dinner the Muggle way, since you seem to be so mesmerized by it," He teased. Ginny rolled her eyes, but agreed and they quickly Apparated two blocks down from his house.

"Why do we have to walk so far? That's the whole point of Apparting isn't it?" Ginny asked/complained as they began the short trek to the house.

"Well, I can't have my roommates know that I can Apparate, now can I? They'd freak out if I just appeared out of no where in the front yard."

Ginny huffed, only somewhat jokingly.

"Here we are." Harry said as the reached the house. He dug in his pocket and pulled out his keys, quickly unlocking the front door. He noticed Ginny staring at them. "They're keys, Ginny. You know what keys are."

"Yea, but not to lock houses and stuff." Harry rolled his eyes and put the keys back in his pocket, opening the front door and allowing Ginny to enter first.

Ginny walked around the living room looking at unmoving pictures of Harry and his roommates. Emily had covered the house with pictures, saying it made everything feel more homey if there were 'family' pictures around.

Ginny picked up on of Harry, Jake, Ben and Emily at a park, their faces pressed together, all cheesing greatly at the camera. "You look so happy." She said, placing the picture back where it went on the mantle.

"I am, yea. But, you know I miss everything and everyone back home. I just... I like it here too." He shrugged.

"Well good, you deserve to be happy." She smiled a little and caught Harry's eye. They stood, transfixed, staring into each others eyes for a long while until they were interrupted by Ginny's stomach growling loudly.

Harry chuckled, "Hungry?" Ginny turned pink and stared at the ground. "Come on, the kitchen's over here. I'll make us some dinner."

"I still can't believe you can cook." Ginny said, following him to the kitchen.

Harry looked at her with is mouth agape, feigning hurt. "I'm offended! I happen to be an amazing cook! I used to have to cook for the Dursley's all the time." He said. The smile that was on Ginny's face fell a little. He rarely talked about his life with the Dursley's, before he went to Hogwarts and knew the Weasley family, but when he did, it always made Ginny sad and a little sorry for him, which he did not want.

"I mean," He continued, "It's no where near as good as your mum's cooking, but I do my best." He rummaged around in the pantry for food and came back with a jar of spaghetti sauce and a box of noodles. "Spaghetti sound good?"

Ginny nodded, "Of course."

"Good, because I may have exaggerated my amazing cooking skills a bit." Harry confessed, smiling. Ginny laughed loudly, and this time it reached her eyes. Harry reveled in the sound of her laughter. He hadn't heard it for almost four years, and he had forgotten how much he loved it.

He filled a pot with water, and placed it on the stove, which he then turned on.

"Anything I can do to help?" Ginny asked, moving closer to peer into the pot of water.

Harry shook his head, "Nope, we just have to wait for the water to boil." He said, turning to her, and finding her face only inches from his.

The sudden close proximity surprised both of them, but neither made to move away. They stood there, transfixed, like they had in the living room. Harry lifted his hand and gently cupped her cheek. Ginny's hands went to his waist. They were getting closer and closer until...

"Harry? You home?" Rang out through the house. The two immediately jumped apart, Ginny blushing and suddenly very interested in the floor patterns. Harry sighed heavily and dropped his head back against the wall, groaning a little.

"Yea, Ben, I'm in the kitchen," Harry called back, his head still against the wall, eyes closed.

Ben strolled into the kitchen, but stopped suddenly when he saw Ginny leaning against the counter. She smiled sheepishly and glanced at Harry, who was now standing at the stove, breaking noodles over the boiling water. Ben looked back and forth between the two, his smile growing wider by the second.

"Ben, this is Ginny. Ginny, this is Ben." Harry said, pointing to each one in turn.

"Hello," Ginny said and held out her hand. Ben took it and said, "Hey there," his smile still growing. It seemed to Harry as if it was about to fall if his face if it got any bigger.

"I'm terribly sorry," He said, turning to Harry now. "Did I interrupt something?"

Harry rolled his eyes. _'YES!_' he screamed in his mind, but what came out his mouth was, "No. When's Jake and Emily getting home?"

"In a few minuets. I'm just gonna head to my room and get changed. You two feel free to carry on anything you were doing before I so rudely interrupted."

Harry looked at Ginny apologetically after Ben had left the room.

"I'm sorry, Gin. I didn't know they would all be home. Do you mind? We can go somewhere if you want."

Ginny quickly shook her head. "No, no, I wanted to meet all your new friends anyway."

"You sure?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Yes, I'm positive."

Harry smiled, "Good, then. They've been asking about you ever since we first ran into each other at the mall and I'm pretty sure they would have kidnapped you soon if they didn't get to meet you." He joked. Ginny laughed again, causing Harry's smile to widen and he suddenly felt more at ease.

They chatted a while longer until they heard the door open and close again and two voices arguing.

"No, Jake that's stupid. Why on earth would anyone ever do that?"

"Because, Emily, it's not stupid. You don't know what you're talking about."

Harry smirked and whispered to Ginny, "Ron and Hermione, I told you." She chuckled.

Emily and Jake immediately stopped their little tiff when they entered the kitchen and saw Harry and Ginny.

Jake grinned almost as widely as Ben, "Well about time, Potter. I thought we would never meet her." He said, offering his hand to Ginny, "I'm Jake Masters. Nice to meet you. Ginny I assume? You better be Ginny, if you're not, I'm gonna have to kick the little Englishman's ass." He said, nodding his head toward Harry. Harry made a face and continued to work on the noodles.

Ginny laughed and took his hand, "I am Ginny. Please refrain from any ass kicking." Jake laughed and turned back to Harry.

"I like her."

"Oh, well great. That's all I needed, Jake, your seal of approval."

While the boys bantered back and forth, the girls introduced themselves again.

"So, how do you like America so far?" Emily asked, for sake of conversation, and to avoid an awkward silence.

"It's good. I like it. I see why Harry has stayed here for so long." Ginny answered.

Emily nodded. "Well that's good. So Harry says you've known each other since he was twelve? I think that's so sweet. How'd you guys meet? He doesn't really talk about his life before he came here."

Ginny got an odd satisfaction out of knowing that Harry wasn't so attached here that he told his new friends everything. Even though she knew that was part of his personality, just like he hated to talk about his time living with the Dursley's.

"Yea, he's not big on sharing personal details, that's for sure. We met at school. He's best mates with my older brother, and he basically lived with us during the summers when we were in school." Ginny explained, leaving out any major details. She was sure Harry would appreciate it if she shared his whole life story.

"Alright, dinner's ready." Harry said, taking two plates of delicious looking spaghetti and off the counter and placing them on the table and went back for the rest. "Ben!" Harry called, setting down the last plate. Ben emerged from his room and everyone took their seat. Ginny was in between Harry and Ben.

"So, Ginny, what is it that you do again?" Emily asked from across the table.

"I'm an Auror." She said, before she realized that none of them would know what that meant. She tried to remember the word Harry had used before at the store in the mall, "It's like a cop, I suppose." She glanced at Harry who gave a minute nod to show that she had gotten the word right.

"Nice," Jake said, "A female cop. Cool." Ginny smiled.

"Is that uncommon? Female cops?" She asked.

"No, not really," Jake answered, "But it is very bad ass." He winked at her. Ginny laughed.

Dinner went on accordingly, Ginny having to answer many questions shot at her from Harry's roommates. She didn't seem to mind, though, which made Harry happy. He liked that his old friends and new friends could get along.

After dinner, Ginny excused herself, saying she needed to get home. Harry walked her out the door and they stood on the front porch, after Jake called that she could come over anytime, whether Harry was home or not, earning him a smack upside the head from Emily and a high five from Ben.

"So, how do you like them?" Harry asked, chuckling, once they were outside.

"They're great. I can see why you wanted to stay here for so long." Ginny said.

"Well I'm glad you like them. I know they like you." Harry laughed, "Although, I am sorry you had to sit through that interrogation they were giving you. You held your own quite nicely. Not that I would expect anything else."

Ginny laughed now, "Why, thank you. I didn't mind, really. They were nice about it. Jake is a riot. You're right; he is most definitely a fantastic mix of all the Weasley brothers." She paused, "I really do have to go. Early day tomorrow." She told him.

Harry nodded, "I'll see you later then, Gin." They hugged tightly. Harry kissed the top of her head. When they pulled apart he said, "Oh! I almost forgot. Do you happen to have an owl I could borrow? I was thinking about writing Ron and Hermione."

Ginny smiled, "They'd love that. They still don't really believe me that I've seen you again. I don't have an owl of my own, but I can get one for you; the Ministry provides them for the people working abroad."

"Alright, thanks," They hugged again, for a few seconds longer than necessary, and then Ginny headed down the street until it was safe to Apparate away, and Harry went back inside.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Throughout the next couple of days Ginny had become an almost permanent fixture in Harry's house. She had lunch there almost everyday after she got off work, and then she and Harry would go out and do something.

On this rainy Thursday night, Harry and Ginny were sitting on the couch in the living room, reminiscing over some old pictures Ginny had found in the bottom of her trunk the day before. They were currently looking at one of Harry, Ron and Hermione in their third year. They were all waving and laughing and every few minuets Collin Creevey's head would pop into the shot from behind the camera.

Harry chuckled at the picture, "I remember this. We were all out by the lake during lunch. Which I supposed wasn't a very good idea, seeing as at the time everyone thought that Sirius was out to kill me. But, of course Collin insisted on taking a picture anyway. Where'd you get this anyway?"

Ginny shrugged. "I'm not sure. I think Collin gave it to Ron and it somehow ended up in my trunk over the years. You know hectic it gets, everyone just throwing stuff where ever it fits." They both smiled and moved on to the next picture which was taken in Harry's sixth year, Ginny's fifth. It was of the two of them in the Gryffindor common room in one of the large, old, comfy armchairs in front of the fire. Ginny was on Harry's lap, one of his arms around her waist, the other hand absentmindedly playing with the fingers on one of Ginny's hands, Ginny's other hand was around Harry neck. They were laughing, talking, and every few seconds, they would give each other a little peck on the lips. Neither one of them ever looked at the camera, making them sure it was a candid.

"Who took this?" Harry asked.

"Hermione. She was playing around with Collin's camera and saw us sitting there and decided to take a picture. She gave it to me a week later saying it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. I think she was high in something…" They both laughed and stared at the picture a little longer.

"Hey, guys," Emily said, walking through the front door. Harry and Ginny reluctantly tore their eyes away from the picture and looked at her. "Oh! Are those pictures? You must let me look." She said excitedly, hurrying over to them. She took the picture out of Ginny's hand and plopped down on the couch next to them. Harry got worried that she would see the picture moving, but when he looked at it again, he saw the picture versions of Ginny and himself, frozen in mid-laugh.

He turned to look quizzically at Ginny, who he could see was storing her wand back into her pocket. She winked at him and he smiled.

"Oh my god! Is this you two?" Emily asked, looking back and forth between them. They both nodded. "This is the sweetest thing I've ever seen. You look so happy, Harry, I don't think I've ever seen you smile like that."

"Yea, well a lot of things have changed since then." Emily sensed the foreboding in his voice and changed the subject.

"How old were you?"

"I was fifteen, he was sixteen." Ginny answered. She returned to the pile of pictures in front of her and pulled out one of Harry from when he was eleven years old, in the boys dormitories.

"Ah, I remember this," Harry said, thinking back to the day when this picture was taken. It was about his second week at Hogwarts and Seamus Finnigan had just gotten a new camera and wanted to try it out. "I think was the first real picture ever taken of me."

"But, Harry, you're so old. This can't have been the first picture taken of you. You're what? Like ten, eleven in this picture?" Emily said, "My god, you're so skinny. Look at that." She held the picture up to the light to get a better view.

"My aunt and uncle weren't really into family pictures, or feeding me for that matter," He said, "Give that back," She snatched the picture out of Emily's hand and stuck his tongue out at her. She was still making fun of his younger self. He looked at the picture again and realized that he did kind of look like a drowned rat. Emily now looked at it over Harry's shoulder, laughing. He glared at her. She tried to keep a straight face, but it wasn't really working.

Ginny took the picture now, "You are rather small, Harry. It looks like you haven't eaten in months." She looked at him, knowing he probably hadn't before he got to Hogwarts.

"Hey, I was a skinny kid." He defended, not wanting to get into anything about the Dursley's. "Next picture please." He said, grabbing another one out of the pile. It was Ginny, Fred and George in the front yard of the burrow, in front of the garden completely covered in mud. Harry smiled and looked at Ginny, who was smiling too, but he could see the tears shining in her eyes as she looked at Fred, who had his arm around a seven year old Ginny, with George doing the same thing on the other side. She blinked a few times and the tears were gone.

"I forgot what he looked like with both ears." Harry said, pointing to George, trying to lighten the mood. Ginny laughed.

"Me too." She said. "I like him better with only one." They both smiled. Ginny took the picture and tucked it away in her pocket, instead of putting back in the pile with the rest of them. Harry put his arm around her and pulled her close, kissing her temple.

"I miss him, too." He whispered in her ear, so only she could hear, and pulled away.

Emily watched the scene with a small smile on her face. She didn't know what made Ginny so upset about the picture, and she had definitely caught that one of them was missing an ear or something, but she didn't say anything. The way Harry had comforted her was like nothing she'd ever seen. Sure Harry had had girlfriends before, but he didn't treat any of them like he did Ginny. He seemed like he could read her mind. Maybe it was their long past together, or maybe it was something else, she didn't know. But that picture of them in the arm chair confirmed something she already suspected: Harry and Ginny were totally in love.

**Alright, there ya go. Remember what I said about the beta! I need one desperately! REVIEW! thanks :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ok, so here is chapter three. Sorry it took so long to get it up here, I don't really like it very much and it took me forever to write. Maybe you guys will like it more than I do, and if you have any ideas that you think will make it better, feel free to share, I'd be happy to revise and post it again. I have a lot of chapter four written and I'll have that up as soon as I get it finished. **

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"So, you're only here for three more weeks? That sucks. It's nice having a girl friend around, instead of being surrounded by these guys all the time." Emily said a week or so later. Everyone was in the living room waiting for Jake to come back with a movie they were all going to watch. Ginny wasn't quite sure what that was, but she was excited for it anyway.

"Yea, I know what you mean. I grew up with six older brothers." Ginny laughed. Emily's mouth dropped open and she shook her head with unbelief.

"Hey," Ben said to Emily, "We aren't that bad. Especially Harry. He's nice and tidy." He ribbed, making a face at Harry, who just made one back.

Ginny turned to look at the black haired boy sitting next to her. "You? Clean? Wow, you just keep on surprising me. First with the cooking, now you're clean. You should have seen his room back home. It was ridiculous. You could barely see the floor."

"Hey! That was mostly Ron's stuff. He's the slob, not me." Harry defended. Ginny looked at him skeptically.

"Your dorm at school was messy, too Harry."

"Well, what did you expect? I shared a room with three other blokes."

Ben and Emily watched the two banter back and forth with smiles on their faces. Harry had changed drastically in the past few weeks that Ginny had been here. He was always upbeat and happy. It's not like he was unhappy before she got there, but every now and then he would just decide to brood for a week and not leave his room. And he didn't like to talk about his past, so none of them knew what to do about it, so they just let him be. But with Ginny here, he was always part of the group, always having fun. They liked him like this and were worried what would happen when Ginny did leave.

"Alright! I got it!" Jake said, bursting through the door, waving a movie around, "G.I Joe!"

Everyone groaned, "G.I Joe? Really, dude?" Ben complained.

"Oh, come on, this movie looked amazing. Did you see all those stunts and shit they did in the commercial? It's gonna be awesome!" Jake excitedly put the movie into the DVD player and flopped himself on the floor like a little kid, laying on his stomach, his head in his hands, a foot away from the TV. Everyone laughed and rolled their eyes. "Turn off the lights!" Jake demanded, not taking his eyes off the screen, even though it was just playing commercials. Ginny stood up and crossed the room to flick off the lights, then settled back onto the couch next to Harry.

The movie wasn't as bad as they thought it would be, although Ginny had fallen asleep halfway through. Harry supposed Muggle movies didn't hold her interest. She was currently lying on Harry's shoulder, snoring quietly.

When the movie was over, Emily got up and turned the lights on, "Well, I am going to bed. It's late." She said. She kissed all the boys on the cheek and headed to her room.

"I think I'm going to follow suit." Ben said. Jake followed the other two with a wink to Harry. Harry rolled his eyes. He turned to look at the sleeping girl on his shoulder. She looked so peaceful and serene he didn't want to wake her. She groaned and turned, snuggling in closer to Harry. There was no way he could get up without waking her up now. He sat there for a few minutes, watching her sleep, trying to decide what to do. He absentmindedly twirled her long red hair between his fingers while he thought.

"Ginny," He finally whispered, pressing his lips close to her ear, "Gin. Wake up."

Ginny opened her eyes slightly and tightened her grip on Harry a little, "Hmmm?" She groaned, not really awake.

"It's late. Do you want to go home?" He asked, his lips still pressed to her ear.

"Hmm? Sure." But she just closed her eyes again and buried farther into Harry's chest and resumed snoring. Harry chuckled and tried to get up, but every time he moved, Ginny just tightened her grip so it was impossible for him to get away.

"Well, goodnight then." He said, placing a lingering kiss on the top of her head and falling asleep himself.

OOOOOOOOO

Harry woke in the middle of the night because an elbow collided with the side of his face.

"Humph." He quickly opened his eyes and whipped his wand out of his pocket. His eyes scanned the room quickly, and after a moment he realized that no one was there, it was just Ginny. She was on the couch next to him - which he had enlarged right before he fell asleep so they could fit better - covered in cold sweat, her face distorted in what looked like pain, and she would trash violently every now and then, explaining the elbow to the nose.

"Ginny," He whispered, shaking her gently. It was obvious she was having a nightmare. "Gin, come on wake up, everything's ok."

"Harry," She cried, still asleep, "No! Please!"

"Ginny, I'm fine. It's Harry. Ginny, wake up." He shook her harder, and her eyes burst open and she looked around wildly.

"Harry?" She said, once her eyes found him. Tears were running down her face and she buried into Harry's chest, gripping tightly at his shirt.

"It's ok, Ginny, everything's ok." He said, wrapping his arms around her and smoothing her hair out of her face. After a few minutes of Harry whispering assurances, Ginny stopped crying and pulled away.

"I'm sorry, Harry. I'm okay now. You can go back to sleep. Sorry I fell asleep here, I can go home now if you want." Ginny said, trying to get up. Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her back down next to him.

"Not a chance Ginny. What's wrong? What were you dreaming about?" Ginny didn't answer. She just looked around the room blankly. Harry took her chin and turned her head to look at him, "You can talk to me. You know that."

She laid down and stared up at the ceiling. They sat in silence for a few moments before she spoke, "We were in the Chamber again. But this time Fawkes didn't get there fast enough." She turned to look at him, tears shining in her eyes again. Harry reached over and cupped her gently pressing his lips to her forehead.

"How often do you still dream about it?"

"A lot. But it varies. Sometimes I die, sometimes you die." She sighed, "I shouldn't still dream about it, should I? I mean it's been like ten years. I should be over it by now right?"

Harry shook his head, "I still dream about it too, sometimes. And Sirius. And the night in the graveyard. It never really goes away, does it?"

"Look at me. Sitting here complaining about this one thing when you've had so much more happen to you. I'm sorry Harry."

"No, Ginny. It doesn't matter how much bad stuff has happened. What happened to you is still bad, and you're allowed to be upset about it." Ginny smiled at him half-heartedly.

"Thanks, Harry." Her eyes begin to feel heavy and she was asleep again within minutes.

Ginny awoke the next morning not really knowing where she was. She slowly opened her eyes and glanced around the room recognizing it as Harry's living room. She then remembered falling asleep in the middle of some movie that everyone had watched the night before, and then waking in the middle of the night with Harry because of her usual nightmare. She sat up and stretched the crick in her neck from sleeping in an awkward position. She heard sounds in the kitchen and decided to go see who it was. When she rounded the corner, her breath caught a little and she leaned against the wall to admire the scene before her. There was Harry, whistling a little tune, cooking breakfast, wearing only his pajama bottoms, which were sagging down a little, so she could see the elastic of his blue and white striped boxers. She watched the muscles in his back ripple as he moved, and sighed heavily. She shook her head and wiped her eyes, trying to shake the thoughts out of her head, which was really hard to do with him standing right there, his hair sticking up in the back like it always did. She sighed again and Harry seemed to hear her this time, as he turned around and smiled when he saw her.

"Oh, hey, you're up." Harry said. She was having a hard time keeping her eyes on his face, now that he was facing her, displaying his Quidditch toned muscles. "Everyone else is out for a few hours. Figured I would make us breakfast. Hungry?"

Ginny nodded, "Always." They both chuckled.

After breakfast, Ginny looked at the clock.

"Oh! Dammit, I have to go. I didn't realize how late it was. I'm sorry." Ginny said, rushing around, putting her breakfast dishes in the sink and pulling her long hair into a ponytail. She paused once she had everything together and turned to Harry. "Thank you so much. For everything." She said. Harry stood up and pulled her into a tight hug. She pressed her face against his bare chest and sighed, wishing she didn't have to leave.

"Bye," Harry said when they finally pulled away. Ginny waved and hurried out of the door.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Harry and Ginny sat on a park bench late one night after wandering around the town and finding nothing to do.

"I can't believe you're leaving in a week." Harry said quietly, gazing up at the stars that were barely visible because of all the city lights.

"Yea, me either. And I didn't expect to be a little sad about going home. When I got assigned to come here, I thought, oh cool, I'll get to see America, and then I'll go back home and everything with be the same again. But it's not. Now that I've found you again Harry, you are NOT under any circumstance allowed to disappear again. Understand?" Ginny said fiercely, staring at Harry with that determined look he had seen so many times.

"I promise I won't let that happen again. I forgot how much I missed you guys." He had been writing back and forth with Ron and Hermione over the past few weeks, too. They were both a little angry at him at first, but they've warmed up now. It's still a little weird though; things aren't like they used to be. It's like they have to get to know each other all over again. Harry didn't know what he was going to do when Ginny left. He had gotten so used to being around her again, that it was going be strange when she wasn't there anymore.

'Oh well,' he thought, 'no point in dwelling on this now, we've got another week.'

"It's getting late, we should go home." Ginny said after a few moments of comfortable silence. Harry glanced at his watch and nodded.

The two hugged tightly and went their separate ways.

When Harry arrived at home, he opened the front door to find Emily and Jake going at it on the couch. He raised his eyebrows and let out a little whistle. Jake was shirtless and the buttons on Emily's shirt were undone.

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised," He said. They either didn't hear him or were ignoring him, as neither one even slightly acknowledged his existence. "Okay, so, I'm just going to go to bed now. See you two in the morning." Again, no response. Harry rolled his eyes, but couldn't help the smile that was growing on his face. He knocked on Ben's door and peaked his head in. "Hey, man, have you seen those two?"

Ben groaned and nodded. "They've been at it for hours! One minute we were just talking like normal the next they were sucking face. Are they still clothed?" Ben asked fearfully.

Harry made a face, "For the most part. They better move somewhere else soon or I am never going to be able to sit on that couch again. Or look at it for that matter." Ben agreed and made a disgusted face.

"Ok, well I'm gonna go to bed. 'Night." Harry said.

"Oh! Harry, wait." He popped his head back in the room, "How'd it go with Ginny tonight?" He asked with a smirk.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Fine. Same as always."

"What are you gonna do when she leaves, man?" Ben asked seriously.

Harry shrugged, "I really have no clue." And walked down the hall to his own room where he collapsed on the bed, fully clothed and fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Wake up sleepy head!" Was what Harry woke to the next morning, accompanied with his bed bouncing violently. Without opening his eyes, he reached out and grabbed the person invading his sleep and knocked them off the bed onto the floor. He then turned around to face away from them and tried to go back to sleep.

"Hey! That was rude." Harry groaned. "Harry, it's past eleven o'clock. Time to get up and greet the world!" They now plopped themselves heavily on the bed again, causing it to bounce some more. Harry begrudgingly opened his eyes. He saw the very blurry form of someone with bright red hair sitting on his bed, so he knew it was Ginny, even without his glasses. He reached over and his hand blindly searched the bedside table for his glasses, but before he could find them, they were being shoved onto his face.

He blinked rapidly and readjusted them so the lens wasn't stuck to his eyeball and looked up at Ginny who was smiling broadly. "I've got a surprise for you." She said excitedly.

Harry raised his eyebrows, "Do you?"

Ginny nodded, "Now get up! Lets go!" She grabbed his arms and heaved him out of bed. She grabbed a pair of jeans off the floor and chucked them at him, doing the same with a shirt she pulled from his closet. "Chop, chop." She said when Harry just stared at her.

He shook his head and stood, pulling his jeans on over the boxers he had worn to bed and pulled the shirt over his head. "Ok, what now?"

"Come on." She grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the house. Ben waved with a smile when they passed him in the kitchen on the way out saying, "Have fun you crazy kids."

"Where are we going?" Harry laughed, still being dragged down the street by the fiery red head. She stopped suddenly, causing Harry to run into her back. She turned to him and said, "Apparate back to my hotel." And turned on the spot, disappearing with a crack. Harry sighed and did the same.

He appeared outside the hotel, but Ginny was no where to be found. He went inside and headed to the front desk. "I'm looking for Ginny Weasley. Can you tell me what room she's in?" He asked the young woman sitting at the counter.

"Hmm?" She said, cracking her gum loudly, glancing up from her magazine. "Oh. Yea. Uh…" She scanned a list of names next to her. "Yes she's in room 214." And she promptly returned back to her magazine, not giving him another glance.

"Ok, thanks." He said, walking away. He bounded up the stairs and began down the hall until he found room 214. He knocked on the door, "Ginny? You in there?"

"Yea, hold on!" Ginny's voice came from inside. Harry heard some rustling around, a loud crash, then a muttered curse before the door sung open and revealed a slightly out of breath Ginny. "Hey, sorry. As I was Apparating here I remembered what a complete mess my room was, so I rushed back so I could tidy up a bit." She chuckled, then put her hand to her forehead, "Oh my god, I'm turning into my mother." Harry laughed and Ginny shook her head, trying to get rid of the thoughts.

"Ok, so anyway, I have a surprise for you." She said, the grin she wore back at his house was again present on her face. "Sit on the bed and close your eyes." She ordered pointing at the small hotel bed. Harry did as he was told. He heard her rummage around and drawers opening and closing.

"Where is the bloody thing?" She muttered to herself, then louder to Harry, "Keep 'em closed Potter!"

"I am, I am." He had no idea how she had seen him open his eyes that fractional amount. She really was turning into her mother.

"Ah! Got it! I seem to have shoved it under the bed while I was 'tidying'. Ok, keep your eyes closed and hold out your hands." She ordered, and again, Harry did as he was told. She placed something heavy and leather bound in his hands. A book? "Ok, open."

Harry opened his eyes and looked down at the thing in his hands, which was, in fact, a book. But, it was a picture book. On the front cover was a picture of he, Ron and Ginny in the common room playing exploding snap in his fourth year, while Hermione was sitting on the floor next to them reading and watching. He opened the book and turned through the pages. They were filled with pictures of him and his friends at Hogwarts and at the Burrow during the summer. He looked at Ginny speechless, his jaw hanging open slightly.

Ginny looked at him, unsure. "Well, I know how much you love that one of your parents and stuff that Hagrid gave you, and I thought you might want one of your glory years." She joked, nudging his shoulder.

As Harry flipped through the pages the pictures got more recent. All of the ones that he and Ginny had looked at a few weeks before – save for the one of her, Fred and George she had kept in her pocket – were in there, along with a lot more. He had no idea where she had gotten these pictures. Towards the very back were pictures from the past few months of him, his roommates and Ginny. He paused at one of him and Ginny asleep on the couch, the night Ginny had the nightmare and stayed the night.

"Who took all these? Where'd you get them?" Harry asked, looking up at Ginny, finally finding his voice.

She shrugged, "I asked people to see if they had any pictures from school. I wanted you to have something about you and your time, not just your parents and the past."

Harry looked at her for a long time. He had never loved someone as much as he loved Ginevra Weasley in that moment. He shot off the bed and pulled her into a crushing hug. After a few moments, he pulled back and took her face between his hands, his thumbs resting on her cheekbones. He looked at her for a long moment before he began to lower his face to hers. Both of them held their breath, anticipating the moment they had been waiting for for years.

"Housekeeping!" a loud rap on the door made Ginny's eyes fly open and Harry freeze where he was, mere centimeters from Ginny's lips. "Housekeeping!" Another loud rap. Ginny sighed and turned away from Harry to get the door muttering something about, "Sod off you old cow, I'll make my own bloody bed."

Harry sucked in a breath and rubbed his eyes under his glasses sinking back down onto the bed. He had been so close. So close! Just another fraction of a second before he old hag knocked on the door and they would have been kissing.

He looked at the bed next to him and picked up the photo album again. He flipped to the pictured from the last few months. He hadn't noticed anyone taking any pictures, and they were all moving, so it had to be done magically.

Ginny got back into the room looking slightly annoyed and sat down on the bed next to Harry.

"Where'd you get all these from the past few months?" He asked.

"Emily took them. She said she loved taking pictures of people when they don't know she's there. Especially you, she says it's the only time you seem open. My favorite is this one." She flipped through a few pages and pointed to one of Harry, Ron and Hermione in their third year. They all looked happy and carefree. "This was before everything got bad." Ginny said, "You can see it your eyes and they way you're smiling. That's why I like it so much. I never really knew you before everything went to hell."

Harry looked at her again, "Thank you, Ginny. This is amazing."

Ginny smiled and shrugged, "Well, you know I'm leaving in four days and I don't know what's going to happen after that or when we'll see each other again, but I just wanted you to know that you always have family Harry. You're not alone."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"So, tomorrow, huh?" Jake said. They were all at a restaurant down the street from their house, to have one last dinner with Ginny before she left. "What time do you leave?"

"Around ten." The portkey to take Ginny home left at 10:06 but she couldn't really tell them that.

"Well you absolutely have to stay in touch, Ginny. I'm going to be stuck here with all these boys." Emily laughed.

"Dinner carried on pleasantly, everyone laughing and joking and having a good time. Except, it seemed, for Harry. He smiled and laughed, but it never really reached his eyes, and he only spoke when spoken to.

Ginny and Emily walked home together, arms linked, while the boys walked a few feet in front of them.

"You noticed Harry tonight right?" Emily asked. Ginny nodded. "He's upset about you leaving."

Ginny nodded again, "Yea, I know. He always does this. He gets all worried and upset ahead of time, he doesn't have time to think about anything, and then he gets all depressed, but of course he doesn't want to talk about it, so he just explodes one day. I thought things would get better after the war, but apparently not." Ginny said, watching the boy in question joke half heartedly with Ben and Jake.

"The war? He was in a war?" Emily asked, looking at Ginny confused. Ginny's eyes widened. She'd forgotten for a moment that they didn't – couldn't – know about Harry's past and everything it entailed.

"Uh, no, no, not really. He wasn't _in _the war, per say. There was just a war going on while we were in school. He lost a lot of family and friends. Everyone did, really." She covered for herself.

Emily stared at Harry for a long time, thinking, "Can you tell me why he came here in the first place? He doesn't really like to talk about it much."

Ginny contemplated what she could and couldn't tell Emily. She didn't want to reveal anything about Harry that he didn't want revealed, but she felt Emily should know something about him, especially since she was leaving and someone had to be there and know what to do when Harry gets all moody.

She took a deep breath and began explaining as much as she could. "So, this will be the majorly condensed version of his life. His parents died when he was a baby and he went to live with his wretched aunt and uncle. They were awful. They beat him and didn't feed him and locked him in a tiny room under the stairs. He doesn't know that I know that, though. Anyway, he lived there until he was eleven and started going to our school. He and my brother Ron became best mates, so Harry spent most of the time during the summer at our house, so he didn't have to spend much time with his aunt and uncle. When I was thirteen, which would make him fourteen, the war started. Long story short, Harry lost his Godfather, whom he had really just met, two very close friends who had just gotten married, and a bunch of kids we went to school with. And my brother, Fred. All of us knew these people, but I think Harry was hit the worst. His Godfather was the only real family he had left. Even though we thought of him as an honorary Weasley, he thought he didn't belong because he wasn't blood. Stupid if you ask me. But, he left and came here just after the war ended." Ginny finished. She had been as vague as she could with still getting the point across.

Emily looked completely shocked, "Oh my god. That's horrible. I didn't realize he had been through so much."

"Yes, but please, don't treat him differently. He hates pity and sympathy, that's why he came here and probably why he never told you any of this."

Emily nodded. They were rounding the corner to the house when Jake came back and threw his arm around Emily, dragging her off, much to her delight.

Ginny walked up beside Ginny and put her arm through his.

"You, ok?" She asked. He looked down at her – he was a good four inches taller than her – and nodded.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

Ginny shrugged. "You just looked kinda down at dinner. You didn't say much and your laugh was totally fake," she smirked at him.

He smirked, too, "I don't understand how you can always tell when I'm faking."

"Because I know you, now spill mister, what's wrong?"

"It's really nothing." She gave him a look that clearly said 'don't-even-try-that-one-one-me' and he sighed. "I just don't want you to leave is all."

Ginny pulled herself tighter to him, although it was kind of an awkward position to walk in. They finally made it to the house and everyone went inside. They all sat around and talked for a few hours before Ginny had to leave. Harry walked her to the door and they stood together on the front porch.

"Harry, you know that whatever happens after tomorrow when I go home, I'll always be here for you, right? And Ron and Hermione, too. And we better see you more. I can't go another four years without you."

"I promise," Harry said, looking down at her desperately, showing a vulnerability she rarely ever saw, "God, I don't want you to go, Gin." Ginny threw herself into him, pressing her face to his chest.

"I know. Me either. I'll miss you so much." She said into his shirt. They swayed for a little while, still attached tightly. When they pulled apart, Ginny stood up on her tip toes and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, sweet and innocent, just like on their first night out together. Except this time when she pulled away and turned to walk down the porch stairs, Harry grabbed her arm, spun her back into his arms and pressed his lips firmly against hers.

"Bye," He said when they pulled away, "Write me when you get back so I know you're okay. You know I'll worry about you." He chuckled. Ginny smiled weakly and nodded, giving him one more hug and a chaste kiss before walking away. When Harry heard the crack of her Apparating away, he turned and went back into the house wondering what the hell he was going to do now.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

**Alright, there it is. Please review with any ideas or comments you have to maybe make it better. I promise chapter four is more exciting and less sad. The story is just getting started. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

Harry awoke the next day feeling uneasy. For a few minuets he couldn't figure out why, but then it all came flooding back. He glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was ten a.m. Ginny was leaving in six minuets and there was nothing he could do about it. He sucked in a long breath and held it for a moment before he let it go.

He finally pulled himself out of bed and into the kitchen where he found Emily. He assumed Ben and Jake were still asleep, seeing as it was Saturday. Emily looked at him worriedly, absentmindedly sipping her coffee, while Harry poured himself a bowl of cereal and took a place at the table. Emily sat down across from him, still watching him intently.

He glanced up at her and caught the question in her eyes. "I'm fine." He said, taking a bite of his breakfast. Emily raised her eyebrows. "Really," He insisted. "I'm ok. You don't need to worry about me."

Emily pursed her lips but said nothing. She knew it was only a matter of time before he started brooding and locked himself in his room. She thought back to what Ginny said about his past and couldn't help but feel admiration for the raven haired boy sitting in front of her. He had gone through so much and here he was, sitting at the table eating cereal like everything was a-okay. She saw a flash of pain in his eyes every now and then, but it was just a fleeting glance and then he was back to normal, but she worried about what Ginny's leaving would do to him. She didn't want him to go back to the way he was before. She had loved him then, of course, but he was so much happier and more alive whenever he was with Ginny. She had never known that side of him before, and now that she had seen it, she didn't want it to go away.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Harry asked, his mouth full of Lucky Charms.

"Like what? I'm not allowed to look at you? You're the only other one in the room, what am I supposed to look at?" She said quickly, remembering what Ginny said about pitying him.

Harry raised his eyebrows at her and continued spooning cereal into his mouth, looking at her like she was crazy. She just smiled at him. Jake came in the room as Harry was putting his dishes in the sink. He looked very unhappy to be awake and plopped himself down at the table where Harry had been sitting just a second before. His hair was sticking up on one side where he had slept on it, his clothes were disheveled and he was rubbing his eyes with a pout on her face. He looked like a five year old woken up in the middle of the night.

His head fell into his arms which were folded on top of the table, obviously fighting to keep his eyes open. Harry looked from Jake to Emily, who had a small, proud smile on her face as she looked at him.

"Jake, why are you awake? You do realize that it's Saturday right? I've never seen you out of your room before noon on Saturday." Harry said, watching his sleepy friend.

Jake shrugged, not lifting his head from the table, so his shoulder collided with is eye. He whimpered pathetically and blinked rapidly for a moment before he spoke, "Ginny left today. Thought you might need some moral support," He said.

Emily looked at him with pride and Harry rolled his eyes.

"Guys, I'm fine, ok? I know Ginny's gone and that sucks, but I promise I'm going to go off myself or something. Thanks for the thought mate, but you can go back to sleep."

Jake looked at him hopefully, his cheek plastered against the table.

"Really? You don't think I'd be an awful friend if I left you here to go back to sleep?" Harry shook his head, fighting back a smile at his friends concern. "I love you man," Jake got up wearily and threw his arms haphazardly around Harry before he stumbled back to his room.

Harry shook his head and looked at Emily. "What did you do to him? He's a little tiny bit responsible."

Emily shook her head, a proud smile still faintly on her face. "I have no idea." She glanced at the oven clock, "Well, I have to go; late breakfast with the 'rents." She rose from her seat and placed her coffee cup in the sink, "I'll be back around one." she ruffled his hair as she walked by him and placed a small kiss on the top of his head, reinforcing the fact that she was most definitely the 'mother' figure in this house hold.

A few hours later Harry was sitting at the couch staring blankly at the TV. Muggle television didn't really hold his interest anymore now that he knew magic, but there was nothing else to do. Jake was still asleep and Ben had gone where ever, Harry hadn't really been paying attention when he told him. He glanced up from the screen when he heard rapping on the window. An owl. He hurried over to let the owl inside.

The owl flew in and perched himself on top of the couch. Harry reached to pull the letter off of his leg, but the owl nipped at his hand.

"Ow! Bloody thing, I didn't even do anything," he cursed, sucking on his bleeding finger.

After a few minuets of tentatively reaching forward and quickly pulling back when the owl lunged at his hand he freed the letter.

It read: _' Dear Harry,  
I'm writing just like you said to let you know I'm home and safe. By the time you get this, I'll probably have been home a few hours now, and everything is ok here. My flat is cleaner than lot was when I left it here. I suspect mum. I'm going to the Burrow tonight for dinner and I'm sure I'll be bombarded with questions about you. Don't be surprised if mums send you food. Even though she can't see you, I'm sure she'll say you're much too_ _skinny.  
Love always,  
Ginny  
PS. Sorry if the owl is a little snippy. They told me at the post office that he was the fastest, but also the rudest. I opted for speed. Hope he didn't cause you too much trouble. Send my love to everyone!'_

Harry turned the parchment over and wrote out his reply:

'_Gin,_

_Thanks for letting me know you're home and safe. I knew you would be, but old habits die hard, huh? Sorry if you get flooded with questions on my account, I'm sure that will be boring for you. And while I object to being called too skinny, (I like to think I have filled out over the years) I do not at all object to your mothers amazing cooking, so bring it on!_

_Love,_

_Harry_

_PS. Yea, the owl was definitely snippy. He almost took my finger off when I tried to get your letter off. It took ten minuets till I finally got it! No worries though, everything's fine and all of my fingers are still intact. I think the real trouble will be getting this back on...'_

Harry finished writing and glared at the bird, who gazed back lazily. Harry moved to attach the letter to its leg, and the owl's eyes widened and its head angled toward Harry's hand, which froze.

"Oh come on! I just want to send this letter back!" the owl just looked at him and hooted a few times, like it was laughing at him. Harry shot his hand forward, quickly tying the note to the bird's leg, his hands being pecked and bit at the whole time. When it was securely attached, he all but threw the blasted thing out of the still open window.

He examined his stinging hands and saw they were covered in little cuts and scratches, like a bunch of paper cuts.

"Bloody hell!"

OOOOOOOOOO

Emily arrived back at home that afternoon to find Jake… cooking. She stood in the doorway of the kitchen and stared, bewildered.

"What are you doing?" She asked. Jake jumped and nearly dropped the skillet he was holding.

"Geez! You scared me. What does it look like I'm doing? I'm cooking!" Jake exclaimed, swinging the skillet around in the air.

"Yes, but why?" Emily was still utterly confused and keeping a close eye on the flailing skillet.

"Cuz I'm hungry. And Harry locked himself in his room. I'm not sure where Ben is…" Jake said, trying to hide the part about Harry.

Emily caught it anyway, and her face fell, "He was doing was doing so well, too." She sighed and walked over to Harry's bedroom door, knocking. No answer. "Harry! It's me. Open up, please." Still no answer. "Come on Harry!" When Harry still didn't answer, she turned to Jake who shrugged.

"He'll come around. He always does." He walked over and kissed Emily's head in a very comforting, un-Jake-like way, "Man, does that boy have some mood swings or what? Maybe he's pregnant? Or menopausal?" That's better.

Emily chuckled and patted his stomach, "Come on, let's go finish making whatever it is you were doing in there.

"PB&J!" She didn't want to know why he had a skillet…

OOOOOOOOO

Harry opened the door to his room making as little noise as possible. He had spent that last week in his room owling back and forth with Ginny, not really caring about the rest of the world around him. He knew Emily was worrying like she always did, but she made no effort to coax him out of his solitude, and for that he was thankful.

He was leaving his bedroom late at night to get some much needed food. He hadn't been eating with the rest of them because he didn't feel like talking to anyone, and he knew Emily would hound with questions about his feelings, which he really didn't want to get into.

He crept into the kitchen and withdrew his wand, lighting it dimly, so he could see, but the light wasn't bright enough to wake anybody. He opened the cabinets and found that they were in desperate need of a trip to the grocery store. He got some bread and popped two pieces into the toaster.

"Finally, you're out of your room," He heard Emily's voice and nearly dropped his wand out of shock. Either he was loosing his edge or she was _really_ quiet. He silently deluminated his wand and shoved it in his pocket, hoping she wouldn't notice.

If she did, she didn't say anything, "What are you doing up?" Harry asked, receiving only a shrug in response. They stood in silence until the toaster popped and Harry removed his toaster and began spreading the miniscule amount of butter they had left on it.

"I thought you said you were fine, Harry."

"I am."

"Hiding in your room for a week not talking to anyone isn't what 'fine' people do."

Harry turned to face her and took a bite of his toast. He shrugged.

Emily sighed, "Why won't you talk to me Harry? I want to help you."

"I know, and I appreciate that, but I don't need your help. I'm fine." He repeated. He shoved the last bit of toast into mouth and walked past Emily to his room, leaving Emily standing alone in the kitchen, shaking her head.

She walked to his door and stared at it for a minuet, debating whether she should go in or not. She decided to go in and flung his door open, revealing Harry laying on his back on his bed with in the dark, staring at the ceiling with his glasses still on. He didn't acknowledge her presence at all.

She sat heavily on his bead, causing to bounce up and down. He glanced at her, but didn't move.

"Harry, you're obviously not fine. People who are fine don't sit in their bedrooms for a week staring at the ceiling in the dark."

Harry shrugged. Emily sighed, exasperated. "Alright, that's it. It's been a week. You're showering and then you're going back to bed and you're getting up at a reasonable hour tomorrow and you are going to live like a normal human being!"

Harry still didn't move or acknowledge her at all. Emily stared at him for a moment before standing and walking over to the side of the bed where she gripped the bottom of the mattress and lifted it up, causing Harry to fall to the ground with a grunt. He stayed there for a moment before standing up.

"Look," she said, "Ginny told me about you. About the war and your family," Harry stared down at the floor, his jaw locked, "And I can't even imagine how bad that would suck, but you can't just mope around when things don't happen how you wanted them to."

"Now, shower." Emily ordered, in a completely different tone, marching him out of his room and into the bathroom, throwing a towel in after him and closing the door. When she heard the water turn on, she leaned back against the door with a satisfied smile on her face.

Just then, Ben walked in the front door.

"Ben? What are you doing? Where have you been? It's past midnight."

Ben shrugged, smiling. "Who is in there?" He said, pointing at the bathroom door.

"Harry," She smirked. "I finally dragged his little ass out of bed. And you didn't answer my questions."

"Well, I saw how depressed Harry was and I thought I should do something to cheer him up." Emily looked at him curiously and raised an eyebrow. "Nope, I'm not telling you, you'll find out tomorrow when Harry does."

Emily's jaw dropped, "What? No! That is not fair! Why can't I know?"

Ben shrugged, "Cuz it's fun to watch you sweat it out a bit. Now I am extremely tired after my day of gallivanting around, making the world better, so I'm going to bed. G'night."

He sauntered to his room with a very self-righteous look on his face.

Emily stayed where she was, leaning against the bathroom door until she heard the water turn off. A few minuets later, Harry emerged from the steaming room, his hair wet, a towel tied around his waist.

"See that wasn't so hard was it? Now go get some clean pajamas on and get to bed, it's late." Emily said, smiling softly at Harry.

Harry stood there moment before nodding. "Thanks, Em." And he went back to his room.

OOOOOOO

When Emily awoke the next, she found Harry already in the kitchen, sitting at the table looking grumpy.

"He's alive!" She joked. Harry stared at her and grimaced, rolling his eyes.

"Ben woke me up, this was not by choice. He says he has a surprise for me? Do you have nay idea what that means? It's making me a little nervous."

She shook her head, "No, he mentioned it last night when he got home, but he wouldn't tell me who it was."

They pondered for a while, while Emily made her morning coffee, when the front door finally opened and Ben walked in, smiling so hard, they were surprised his face didn't crack in two.

Harry and Emily glanced at each other nervously as Ben took a seat at the kitchen table, still smiling like an idiot, and now he was staring at Harry.

Harry wiped his face with his hand self-consciously. "If you keep smiling like that, your face will stick." Ben's smile didn't falter.

Jake's bedroom door burst open and he came sprinting out. "Oh my god, you guys! I was just looking out of my bedroom window and you'll never guess who was walking down the street-" This is when Ben bounded from his seat and tackled Jake to the ground.

Both Harry and Emily jumped and looked nervously at each other again, unsure of what to do.

Ben and Jake fought it out on the floor for a while before they stopped and calmly took seats at the table, both of their clothes rumpled and hair sticking up on end. Harry and Emily just stared.

When Jake and Ben just sat there in silence, Harry reverted back into his grumpy 'why-the-hell-am-I-awake?' stance, his arms crossed across his chest, leaning back in his chair, with his eyes closed.

They sat like that for a while, Emily utterly confused. When the front door opened again, this time revealing someone nobody (except maybe Jake and Ben, which would explain the smiling) thought they would be seeing again anytime soon walked through the door.

Harry stared dumbfounded at the somewhat angry redhead standing in the living room, hands on her hips. Ben, looking quite satisfied with himself, left the room, motioning for the other two to follow him.

"Come on, lets leave these crazy kids alone," he said.

Harry just sat at the table, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. Ginny took a seat across from him at the table.

"I thought you said you were going to be ok, Harry." She said, obviously trying not to yell, "But instead, I get a letter from Ben saying you've locked yourself in your room and won't come out. I thought you had grown out of this Harry, but I guess not." Her voice was beginning to rise, "When I first came here, I wanted to drag you home immediately, but I told myself that would be a bad idea, that you had made a life for yourself here and it would be wrong for me to come here and rip you out of it. But I've changed my mind. I don't really care that you live here now. You don't really belong here. If you did, you wouldn't be so upset that I left."

Harry just stared at her, his mouth still open through her whole little speech, "What are you saying?" he said dumbly, still trying to process everything.

"I'm saying that you need to come home, Harry."

They were silent for a long time before Harry nodded, "I know. I've known that for three years. But I don't think I can, Ginny. Nothing's going to be the same as it was when I left."

"Wasn't that the point of you leaving? It's good that things have changed, right? That's what you wanted."

"Yea, I did. And I'm glad they have. But I can't just waltz back into everyone's lives. I don't even know them anymore. It's been too long."

"No it hasn't. And you are coming back whether you like it or not. I've got a port key set up to leave tomorrow at three, so start packing and saying goodbye." Ginny said, with a tone that obviously said 'end-of-discussion'. She stood from the table and headed back out of the door. "See you at three. Be ready, or you're leaving without your stuff."

A few minuets after Ginny left, Harry was still sitting at the table, so his roommates decided to join him.

"I'm leaving, guys. Going home." He said.

His roommates all nodded, "We know," Ben said, "That's why I asked her to come here. I knew you had to go and I knew she was the only that could make you do it."

"How did you get a hold of her? She doesn't have a phone or anything." Harry asked.

Ben shrugged, smirking, obviously impressed with himself, "I noticed owls flying back and forth out of your window - which is really weird by the way – and figured it had something to do with Ginny, since it hadn't happened before. So I grabbed one as it was flying away and added my own little note to the bottom of yours. Don't worry, I didn't read it. You have some weird paper by the way. And the ink looked weird, too, like you wrote it with actual ink, not a pen or something."

Harry had pulled some old quills and ink out of the bottom of his trunk when he and Ginny had started writing more often. It felt weird to write with a pen.

He just shrugged. Ben was unfazed, and kept on talking about how good he was at planning and how very proud of himself he was, Harry just tuned him out, as did the other two.

After a few minuets, Jake interrupted Ben's chatter with a question, "Wait, why were there owls? That's just weird. I've never seen an owl outside of the zoo before." Everyone turned to Harry. He didn't know what to say, couldn't think of anything that explained away the owls, the parchment or the quills. 'So', he figured, 'what the hell, I'm leaving tomorrow anyway.'

"Well, uh, the truth is, I'm a wizard, guys." They all looked at him like he was crazy. "Really, I promise. I'm not mental. Oh, here look." He pulled his wand out of his back pocket and laid it on the table. They continued to stare, every once and a while glancing down at the wand. "Ever wonder how I got this scar on my forehead?" He rubbed his fingers over his lightning bolt scar. "Got hit with a killing curse when I was a baby, and lived. Only person in the world to do that. That's how my parents died. And that war Ginny told you about," He said to Emily, "I was in it, I didn't just watch. I was the reason it was happening, why all those people got killed. So I ended it, after seven years mind you, and I came here, where no one knows who Harry Potter is."

They were all dumbfounded, none of them knew whether to believe him, or call the funny farm. Harry leaned back in his chair and waited for one of them to say something.

"Well, do something then." Jake said, looking at the wand, but not picking it up, like he was afraid it would hurt him. Harry grabbed it off the table and 'swished and flicked' and the empty mug on the table floated over to the counter. His roommates gasped and stared at him. He shrugged.

"Told you."

Jake let out a low whistle, and a smile shot across his face, "That explains so much! That's why you always volunteer to stay and clean up, and why you don't have a job!" he exclaimed. The other two weakly chuckled, still staring at Harry in disbelief.

"Is Ginny, too?" Emily finally spoke up. Harry nodded.

"Yea, we all went to the same magical school in Scotland." Emily nodded slowly, taking everything in.

"So, the owls..." Ben began. Harry spent the next few hours answering question after question about magic. He didn't know why he told them in the first place, but it felt good for them to know, like he didn't have to hide anything anymore. After a while, they all dispersed and Harry went to his room to begin packing. He had his trunk open in the middle of the floor and he was throwing things in haphazardly when Emily walked in and took a seat on his bed. Harry smiled and nodded to her in greeting, continuing to throw things into his trunk. Emily sighed and began removing his clothes, folding them, and placing them back in the trunk.

Harry chuckled a little at this and decided to sit on the bed next to her and help her fold. They sat in silence for a while until Emil suddenly dropped the shirt she was holding and lunged at Harry, pulling him into a bone crushing hug. "I'm going to miss you so much, Harry." He hugged her tightly back until she finally loosened her death grip and sat back. "Will there be anyway to contact you once you leave?"

Harry shrugged, "Owls, I guess. We don't have phones or computers or anything, all the magic makes them not work properly."

"That's the weirdest thing to hear you say. Magic. I thought it was all just gimmicks, but I guess not, huh?" Harry chuckled and shook his head. Emily reached up and brushed his hair away from the scar on his forehead. "I did always wonder how you got that. It's so odd."

Harry nodded, "Yea, I got a huge one on my chest, too. I got hit with yet another killing curse when I was seventeen, at the very end of the war and it left a mark. I cover it up when I'm around people, though. It's a little conspicuous." He chuckled.

Emily looked flabbergasted. "You got hit with things that have the word 'killing' in them _twice_, and you're here and well? I don't understand."

"Well, it's a long, complicated, fairly boring story. I still don't know exactly how it all worked out. The guy who explained it all to me was a complete nutter, and was dead by the time I got hit with the second one, so..." He shrugged, and continued folding.

Emily followed suit, but didn't look satisfied with Harry's avoidance of the question.

"If you can do magic, why are you doing all of this by hand?" Emily asked, placing a shirt neatly in his trunk.

Harry chuckled, "I never was good at household spells." Emily nodded.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Harry was awake by seven the next morning. He was too jittery to sleep. He was part nervous, part excited to be going back home. Mostly nervous, though. He didn't know how everyone would react to him suddenly being back. He stood in his room pacing back forth, occasionally grabbing some left over items and shoving them into his neatly packed trunk, courtesy of Emily.

At eight o'clock he couldn't take it anymore and went out to the kitchen where he made himself a quick breakfast and sat at the table, staring out the window, trying to calm down but his leg just wouldn't stop bouncing.

After a while, Emily padded into the kitchen and made herself her usual morning coffee. She took the seat across from Harry.

"I figured you would be awake. Excited?"

"Yea, a little. Mostly nervous." His leg was still bouncing. Ben walked in the room a little after Emily and also grabbed a cup of coffee and sat at the table, next to Harry.

"Well, someone's a bit antsy today." He said, smirking at Harry. Harry glared. Ben and Emily chuckled, but didn't say anything, knowing it would just upset him. So they sat in silence and shared amused glances about Harry's insistent foot tapping and fidgeting.

Jake emerge from his bedroom, took one last look at Harry, and opened his mouth to crack a joke, but immediately shut it at the glare and head shake Emily sent him. Harry rolled his eyes at the obvious gesture, but didn't say anything.

After a while, Harry couldn't take the silence and glances anymore and stood from the table.

"I'm going to go finish packing." He said, rising from his chair. Being in his room really wasn't much better. It was still silent and he was still nervous. He kept imagining what would happen when he went back, and the scenarios just kept getting worse. By the time Ginny got there at 2:30, he had worked himself into a frenzy and he was fully convinced that he shouldn't go back home and everyone would hate him.

"Harry?" He heard Ginny knock, and she entered before he said anything.

"Need help with any last minuet packing?" She asked. Harry stood in the middle of his room and didn't say anything. "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

Harry shook his head. "No, I'm not ok, really. I can't do this. I can't go back. They'll all hate me. I'll get beaten up! Or hexed into oblivion! You have brothers that still haven't beaten me up for breaking up with you. They've had almost five years to think of nice creative ways to kill me!" He was pacing around his room, waving his arms around like a mad man.

"Harry!" He kept ranting and waving. Ginny sighed, went over to him, grabbed his arms and pinned them to his side. "Harry. I've already talked to everyone. They all are excited that you're coming back. It will probably be worse for your health if you don't come. My mum will kill you. Now, do you need any help?"

Harry silently shook his head. "Alright, then lets go." She grabbed his hand and led him out of the room. He pulled out his wand and levitated his trunk behind him. "What are you doing?" Ginny hissed.

Harry shrugged, "I told them everything yesterday. Figured I was leaving anyway, might as well."

Ginny smiled at him softly and shook her head, "Alright, then we can Apparate right out of here.

"The portkey leaves in ten minuets." Ginny said once they were in the living room, "I'll you all to say goodbye." She waved at his roommates and Disapparated with a pop. His roommates gasped and gaped at the spot where Ginny had been moments before.

Harry gave a little chuckle. "Alright, well, I guess this is it." He sighed. Emily gave a sob and threw herself into his arms. After a few seconds she pulled back again, wiping her face.

"Sorry. I'm just gonna miss you." Harry smiled and hugged her again, before moving on to Jake and Ben, who each got one of those manly one armed hugs with a pat on the back.

"See you guys. I'll write as much as I can. And visit, too."

"You better." Emily said.

He gave one last wave before he Apparated away, too.

He found Ginny by the front desk of the International Portkeys wing of the American Ministry of Magic.

She smiled at him as he made his way over. "Ready?" She asked.

He nodded, "Let's go." They each stuck their finger to the portkey and felt a pull behind their navel before they crashed to the ground. Harry's legs buckled beneath him and he fell to the ground.

"I hate those bloody things." He mumbled, standing up and wiping himself off.

Ginny chuckled at him. "Here we are." He looked up at the wonderful, slightly crooked home that he hadn't seen in four years. Man, was it a sight for sore eyes. "Are you gonna stand there all night, or are we going to go in?"

OOOOOOOOO

**Okie dokie, there was chapter four! I've got some of chapter five written, so i'll try to get that up by next week. And I finally got a beta! Yay! Now... REVIEW! :)  
**


	5. Chapter 5

Harry took a deep breath and followed Ginny through the all too familiar front yard of the Burrow. Well, actually, it was more like Ginny had an iron grip on his hand and dragged him through the all too familiar front yard of the Burrow, but still.

"Ok, so no one knows we're back. I told them I was going to get you, but I didn't say when we'd be back. I wanted it to be a surprise." She said as the neared the front door.

"Ginny! I don't want to walk in out of the blue after four bloody years!"

"It's not out of the blue, they know you're coming." they had to stop their whispered argument as they reached the door. They saw Mrs. Weasley at the kitchen table knitting, her back facing them. Ginny turned to Harry with a smile and pressed her index finger to her lips in a "shhh" gesture. She silently opened the door and dragged Harry through after her. She motioned for him to stay where he was as she tip toed into the kitchen.

"Ginevra Weasley, don't you dare think about scaring your mother. And you better have someone with you." Mrs. Weasley said without turning around. Ginny turned to Harry with a 'how-does-she-do-that?' look on her face. "Eyes in the back of my head, deary."

Ginny shook her head disbelievingly at her mother. "Yes, mum, it is me. And yes I have someone with me." Mrs. Weasley promptly dropped her knitting and whirled around to see Harry, who was nervously walking into the room, his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Oh, Harry, dear!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, rushing over and pulling him into a bone crushing hug. When she pulled back, she took his face in her hands - where she probably felt a few days worth of stubble - and surveyed him. "Hmmm, well you're not a twig anymore, but you could do with some food, yea?" She paused for a moment and took a deep breath, tears beginning to well in her eyes. "Oh, dear, it's so wonderful to see you again. I finally have my son back."

She promptly began bustling around the kitchen making a late lunch for everyone. "Ron and George are at the shop - did you know they work together now, Harry? - go Floo them, would you Ginny? Hermione, too." Ginny nodded and headed into the den, where the Floo network was set up.

Ginny returned a few minuets later and told her mother everyone was on their way. Both Harry and Ginny doubted the woman heard, though, as she was too busy waving her wand around, pot, pans and various food items soaring through the air.

Ginny pulled Harry out of the danger zone and into the living room to wait for everyone to get back. She told him about the joke shop and how Hermione was now working at the Ministry in the Department of Mysteries as an Unspeakable. Harry didn't know how she did it; after his fifth year he never wanted to go back there.

After a few minuets, a tall, not-so-lanky-anymore red head shot out of the Floo and slid across the floor, dragging ashes and Floo powder along with him. After a few minuets of coughing and patting soot out of his clothes and hair, he stood and searched the dusty room for Harry.

When he saw him, both men stood awkwardly for a few moments. "Uh, hey Harry," Ron said, unsure of what else to say.

Just then another red head shot out of the Floo and collided with Ron, who hadn't moved out of the path he slid down when he entered. They fell with a loud thump and a few choice swear words. Harry and Ginny both laughed and when to help the two up.

"Well, hello there Harry, long time no see," George said, once everyone was standing.

They were interrupted again by a loud pop and Hermione appearing in the middle of the brothers, who were standing side by side, causing everyone to stumble a little and Ron to swear some more.

"Ronald! Watch your mouth," Hermione scolded. Harry let out a chuckle at the familiarity of it all. His laugh made Hermione's eyes snap to him and a huge smile lit up on her face, "Harry!" She flung herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, nearly cutting off his air supply.

"Hey, Hermione," Harry said, hugging her back just as tightly. When they pulled away, Harry took a look at his old best friend. Her bushy brown hair wasn't as bushy, but rather, it fell in gentle curls to her shoulders. She was just a little shorter than him, and still had a tight grip on his neck. She reached up and kissed him on the cheek before hugging him again.

"I can't believe you're here!" She stepped back quickly and the smile on her face transformed to a frown in a matter of seconds. She slapped his arm a few times, "Don't ever do that again, Harry! You can't ever leave again, ok?"

Harry rubbed his arm where she hit him and nodded, "Yea, of course Hermione. I think it's been long enough," he gave a small smile and she hugged him again.

"Come on now, Hermione, save some of him for the rest of us," George said, shoving her out of the way and latched onto Harry himself. Harry laughed and hugged him back.

"How are you, George?"

"Oh, you know..." George shrugged. He saw what Ginny said about him. The mischievous sparkle in his eye was gone, but there was a small smile on his lips, like he was trying to get back to how he was.

"Alright, everyone, come get lunch!" Mrs. Weasley called from the kitchen. Everyone headed to the kitchen, except for Ron and Harry, who hung back a little. They hadn't really had a chance to say anything to each other because of George's spectacular entrance.

Harry was about to say something when Ron gave him a weak smile and a nod of the head, before he too made his way into the kitchen. Harry stared at his back, confused, and followed him into the kitchen.

They all sat around the kitchen, eating Mrs. Weasley's wonderful food and talking pleasantly. Everyone, Harry noticed, except for Ron. He didn't talk much and wouldn't meet Harry's eye, even when he was talking directly to him. The only thing that was normal about him was the amount of food he managed to put away. But, maybe he was acting normally. Harry hadn't talked to him in four years; he didn't know what normal was anymore.

Although, judging by Hermione's reaction to his behavior, it wasn't normal. She was shooting him sharp looks and elbowing him in the ribs all night.

Eventually it got late and everyone needed to start heading home. Hermione gave Harry one last tight hug and grabbed Ron, who just gave a weak nod, before they both Apparated back to their flat. George did the same a few minuets later with Katie (who had arrived after Ron, George and Hermione), leaving just Harry and Ginny.

"Come on, lets go for a walk," Ginny suggested, pulling Harry out of his chair.

They made their way down the little dirt path that led away from the Burrow. Harry was walking with his head bowed, hands in his pockets. Ginny was pulling her thin jacket tighter around herself to block the chilly air. It was dark outside by now and the lack of sun cooled things down.

"So, you said everyone was fine with me coming back," Harry said after a few minuets of silence. Ginny nodded. "Then what was wrong with Ron? He didn't seem too thrilled."

Ginny sighed and looked at Harry, "He's just adjusting. You know him, he's thick headed and stubborn, like the rest of us," She chuckled. "Remember your fourth year during the Triwizard Tournament when he got jealous and didn't talk to you for half the year?" Harry snorted and nodded, rolling his eyes, "Well, this is probably going to be like that. He's just a little hurt is all. Give it time. Talk to him."

Harry nodded, "Yea, I guess."

They were silent for a while longer before Ginny spoke again, "You know, that was the first time we'd all been together for longer than a few minuets. You coming back is a good thing, whether you believe or not. Mum thinks of you as a son, Harry. Having you gone made it seem like another one was missing." She said quietly.

"I'm sorry I did that, you know? I really did think it would be best for everyone, myself included, if I left. I suppose I was just being selfish."

Ginny snorted in disbelief, "Harry Potter, you are one of the least selfish people I have ever met in my entire life. Besides, you deserve to be a little selfish by now, don't you think?"

They kept walking for a while longer before they decided to go back inside, where it was decided under no circumstances where Harry was allowed to stay in a hotel, he would, of course, just sleep in Ron's room as always.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

They next day Harry decided to visit Ron at the shop to talk to him, like Ginny had suggested. When he arrived at Diagon Alley, he was met with the oh so wonderful stares and whispers he had managed to escape from for four years.

"Is that Harry Potter?" He heard someone whisper.

"Can't be, everyone thought he was dead or something. No one's seen him in years!"

It went accordingly until he found Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and pushed open the door, which was a considerably hard task, seeing as the place was swarming with people. Harry remembered the date; Hogwarts would be starting soon.

He did eventually manage to push himself into the crowded shop. It was, luckily for him, so crammed that there was no possible way he would be recognized.

He made his way slowly up to the front desk, where he saw five girls in maroon robes working at cash register type things, except they seemed to count out the change for you and spit it up in the air, to be caught in the bag full of the purchases, which was then handed to the customer. They had quite a good system here. **(does this description make any sense? I couldn't think of how else to say it.) **

When he finally made it to the counter he asked one of the girls where Ron would be.

"Back room," she said without looking at him, handing a customer their bag. Harry nodded his thanks and waded away from the counter and towards the back room where Fred and George had taken him when they first opened the shop.

He entered the room, which was crammed full of various magical joke items. Harry looked around, careful not to touch anything, just in case.

He jumped slightly when another door opened and Ron walked through, holding a large box. He froze when he saw Harry.

"What're you doing here?" He asked, bring the box over to a small table and setting it down. He began removing it's contents and placing the items on the surrounding shelves, not once looking at Harry.

Harry shrugged and walked across the room to stand next to Ron, "I dunno. Thought I'd stop by and say hello."

"Well, hello, then," Ron said dismissively, still keeping his gaze locked onto the little silver contraptions he was arranging on the shelf.

"Yeah, okay, that was a lie. I came here to talk to you. You looked like you were kinda peeved at me at lunch yesterday."

"Did I?"

"Don't avoid the question Ron." Ron mumbled something about not hearing a question. Harry rolled his eyes, "Come on, Ron. Are you angry?"

"Angry? Yes, Harry, I am angry." He finally took his gaze off the items and now stared Harry directly in the face, "You weren't around to see what happened when you left. My little sister was heartbroken, my girlfriend was upset, my mum was a mess. And I had to clean everything up, while you out god knows where having a nice time." Harry heard a little crack and glanced down at Ron's hand, which was gripped so tightly around one of the little silver things that it had snapped. Ron didn't seem to notice. He jaw was locked and he was breathing heavily, still staring Harry in the eyes.

Harry dropped his gaze to the floor, unable to look at Ron's angry and disappointed face any longer. He nodded slowly. "Yea, I know that now. But to tell you the truth, Ron, I wasn't really thinking about everyone else when I left. I didn't think about how it would affect them."

"Well you should've." Ron's grip on the broken silver item in his hand loosened and the pieces fell to the floor. Ron finally seemed to notice that he had broken it. "Oh bugger," He mumbled as he bent down and scooped up the pieces before throwing them in the bottom of the box and continuing his stacking.

Harry waited until Ron was no longer seething to speak again, "I'm sorry for leaving. I really am. But, I had to get out. I'm sorry that I hurt everyone, but I felt at the time that I had to. It was selfish and stupid, I know, but I did it, and I'm sorry." Ron didn't look at him. Harry sighed and shook his head, his own anger building. Fine, if that's how he wanted to play it, Harry could too. With that thought, Harry left the room, slamming the door behind him. He waded through the crowd of people and out onto the street.

Once Harry left, Ron's stacking became less forceful. He set the items gently and neatly on the shelves. He was examining the pieces of the broken one at the bottom of the box, trying to determine if he could fix it or not, when George walked in.

"Way to go, dumbass, you broke one?" He asked, taking the pieces from Ron.

Ron grimaced, "It's Harry's fault. He made me mad and I crushed it." He mumbled.

George shook his head at him and examined the pieces himself.

"Hey, George, so I think I'm going to take the rest of the day off," Ron said. George looked up from his little broken contraption at Ron.

"Why?"

Ron shrugged, "I need to do some things, you know."

George nodded slowly, clearly not believing a word his little brother was saying, "Yea, ok, you do that then." He knew whatever it was that Ron was leaving for, it was important. Believe it or not, Ron really put work into the shop and only missed days when it was necessary. Not mention, George could still see the little bit of leftover anger in him.

Ron nodded quickly and exited the shop through the back employee's only door, so he wouldn't have to shove his way through the crowd out in the shop.

Once he was outside, he Apparated to the apartment he shared with Hermione. They had bought it two years ago, when he made up his mind that there was no chance in hell that he was going to live in the Burrow with his mother anymore. As much as he loved his mother, she could be a little overbearing sometimes. It was a nice apartment, not too big, but definitely room for two. It had a living room, a large bedroom, a bathroom, and a medium sized kitchen.

He appeared in the middle of their small living room moments later. It was nice to be able to Apparate straight into his house now that there weren't wards up all the time anymore.

"Hermione?" He called out. He heard rustling in the kitchen and Hermione appeared in the doorway – that was really more like an archway, seeing as there wasn't a door there. She had her curly hair pulled back into a ponytail and was wearing a comfortable t-shirt and sweatpants. There was a small smile playing at the corners of her lips.

"Hey, Ron, what are you doing home so early? I was just reading." She gestured back toward the kitchen. She walked across the room to her boyfriend and hugged him. When she tried to pull back, he just tightened his grip and wouldn't let her go. They stood like that for a few minutes, Hermione not knowing what was going on – though not really minding it either – before Ron pulled away enough to see her face, but he kept his hands planted firmly on her waist.

Hermione looked up at him quizzically, "What's wrong, Ron? You look upset about something," she said, bringing her hands to his cheeks.

It was a few moments before Ron answered quietly, "How did you do it Hermione? I'm trying to. I want to, but I just _can't_."

"Do what?" Her eyebrows knitted together and her lips pursed in confusion.

"Forgive him." Ron barely whispered. Hermione didn't have to ask who he was talking about. Her face softened and she rubbed her thumb across his cheekbone.

She sighed and shrugged, "I don't know. I just do. I love him and that's what you do when you love someone, right? Forgive them, no matter how stupid they were?" She raised her eyebrows a minute amount and could see the ghost of a smile on Ron's face.

"Yea, I suppose. But it's not really him anymore is it? He's changed. He looks different and acts different. It's like we don't even know him anymore. And I just can't forgive him for what he did to you. And to Ginny. And to everyone else who knew him. Hell, even George." Ron's jaw clenched and Hermione could see him beginning to get angry.

"Well, you have to forgive him anyway. Things aren't going to go back to how they were before, that's a definite, but we can push forward together. Get to know him again. We've were best friends for seven, almost eight years. We spent months on end cramped together in a little tent in the middle of nowhere. We know every little minute detail about each other. Little things like that don't change, Ron. He's still Harry. He's still your best mate who would do anything for you if you asked him to. Now you just have to find a way to make yourself forgive him, and everything will be ok."

Ron stared down and his brilliant girlfriend. "Have I ever mentioned that I love you?" he asked, smiling. Somehow she always knew what to say to make him feel better.

Hermione smiled, too, "Maybe once or twice." She stood on her tippy toes and pecked his lips. "Now, go get your best friend back," she ordered, pointing to the door.

Ron chuckled and obliged. He knew exactly what he was going to do.

"Hey, mum, is Harry here?" Ron asked his mother as he opened the door to the Burrow and found her in the kitchen, knitting and reading the newspaper.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, he's upstairs in your room, deary." She said, not glancing away from her reading.

Ron nodded and quickly bounded up the stairs to his attic bedroom.

He threw open the door and found Harry lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Hmm, maybe he wasn't so different after all.

Harry sat up quickly when the door opened. Neither said anything while Ron stood in the doorway, staring at Harry. They both seemed to know what was coming. After a few more silent moments, Ron lunged across the room and hit Harry square in the face. Just once, and he felt immensely better. Harry on the other hand was grimacing and holding his jaw, slowly opening and closing his mouth.

"Well, I can't say I didn't deserve that." He said, nodding, still rubbing his soon to be bruised jaw.

Ron shook his hand a little and bobbed his head up and down, "We're ok now." He said, looking at Harry in the eyes, so it was obvious what he was talking about.

"Yea?" Harry asked.

Ron nodded, "Yea."

**So there is chapter five. Sorry it took so long to get it out, I had some major writers block for a while until last night when I wrote like three more pages instead of doing my math homework. And sorry it's so short, but I'll try to make the next one longer to make up for it. Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing, it makes me feel good and want to keep writing :) and thanks to my beta surferdude8225. Review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ok, so this took about a million years to post. Sorry about that. I don't really have an excuse except that I didn't feel like writing. But I'm back in the mood and I've got part of chapter seven written and some ideas to propel the story onward! So enjoy, and please review, it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. :)**

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"This is not at all what I meant when I said you had to find some way to forgive him." Hermione said, examining Ron's red, slightly bruised, hand that had collided with the side of Harry's face just a few hours ago.

Ron chuckled, a large grin on his face, "Well you weren't very specific, were you? It was the first thing I thought of that would make me feel better." Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Boys," she mumbled under her breath.

Ron laughed again and kissed her head. "I have to go. I'm meeting Harry at a pub in London. You know, male bonding." He puffed up his chest comically.

Hermione scoffed. "Yea, ok, if that's what you want to call it. Have fun."

A few minutes after Ron popped away, Ginny emerged from the fire place.

"Any idea why I had to remove a rather large bruise from Harry's face?" She said, dusting herself off. "He wouldn't tell me."

Hermione nodded, "Ron punched him. He said it made him feel better."

Ginny raised her eyebrows and nodded slowly, clearly thinking her brother was slightly unstable. "Boys are ridiculous, Ginny, why do we waste our time with them? I mean, Ron just punched Harry in the face a few hours ago and now they're hanging out at some pub together like nothing happened."

"Well, if living with six brothers has taught me anything, it's that they are very simple minded. They punch each other and get over it. Women do not. We don't talk about it for years and then explode one day. It's just the way it is."

Ginny took a seat at the kitchen table next to Hermione and reached over to grab some food off her plate. Hermione glared at her and pulled her plate out of arms reach.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Harry!" Ron called when he saw his friend walk through the door, "Over. here!"

Harry nodded to the redhead and made his way over to the booth he was seated at and slid in opposite him. A waiter came up almost as soon as Harry sat down.

"Hello, sir, what can I…" his eyes drifted up to Harry's forehead. Harry smoothed his bangs down and turned away slightly, ordering a Firewhiskey. The poor waiter stumbled over his words spectacularly as he took Harry and Ron's order, before he hurried away. They saw him talking to his coworkers behind the bar, all of them glancing at the pair of them. Harry subconsciously smoothed his hair down again.

Ron chuckled, "Welcome back, eh?"

Ron turned around to face the bar and sent a little wave toward the wait staff. They all averted their eyes and busied themselves with their work until Ron turned around again so they could continue their ogling.

"I guess I do see why you wanted to leave, this does get pretty annoying. And it's even worse for you than it is for me and Hermione." Ron observed.

Harry nodded, noncommittally, and shrugged.

"Yea, I suppose, but I guess I have to get used to it eventually, right? And everyone will calm down once word gets around that I'm back and not dead or something, right?" He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than Ron.

They chatted a while longer before Ron became quiet and fidgety. After a few minutes of expectant silence, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black, velvet box and placed it on the table. A passing waitress nearly dropped the tray she was holding. Harry and Ron ignored her.

"Well, mate, I'm flattered, really, but you're not really my type. Sorry." Harry said, his face completely blank, except the corners of his lips were tugging upward, trying to hide his teasing smile. Ron glared at him and snatched the box back off the table, placing it safely in his pocket.

"It's not for you! It's for Hermione!" He whisper-yelled. "I think I'm going to ask her to marry me."

Harry nodded, "Cool, just make sure it's before November. I'm fairly certain I still have four Galleons on the table with Dean about that."

Ron scowled. "You guys have been betting on us?"

"We made this bet in fifth year, and we're nearing my deadline, so hurry up with it, won't you? Oh, come on," Harry said at Ron's look, "it's not like you never bet on me. It's no big deal. But, seriously, November."

Ron glared one more time and laid his head on the table. "I dunno if I can do it, mate. What if she says no? Everything will be ruined."

Harry rolled his eyes, "She's going to say yes. She's been in love with you since first year."

Ron raised his head off the table. "Really?" He asked, obviously worried.

"Yeah, really. Y'know she Confunded McLaggen so you would get the Keeper position."

Ron looked like he didn't know whether to be thankful or mad about that.

"She'll say yes." Harry repeated.

OOOOOOOOO

Harry climbed the stairs of the Burrow to Ginny's room. He knocked while opening the door, slowly poking his head in. She was laying on her bed reading. She glanced up at him when he came in, but didn't say anything. Harry took a seat at her desk.

"So," he said, leaning back in the chair, "I think I got Ron to 'grow a pair' as you so kindly put it."

Ginny's head snapped up from her book, a huge grin plastered on her face. "Really? When's he going to do it?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but I did convince him that she wasn't going to say no."

"He thought she was going to say no?" She asked disbelievingly, "He's mental. They've been together for five years now, if she had wanted to leave him, she would've already."

"Hey, this could be a potentially traumatic experience in a guy's life. Every time you tell a girl you like her, you feel like an idiot. It's just a fact, but this is ten times that. So, you feel like ten times an idiot. Besides, you know Ron, he's just second guessing himself."

Ginny shrugged. "So, Hermione told me Ron punched you."

"Yeah, I just didn't want you to be mad at him, I really did deserve it. Thanks for getting rid of the bruise, by the way. I would've looked stupid walking around black and blue all day."

Ginny just nodded. They sat in semi-awkward silence for a few minuets. Neither had anything else to say, but they didn't want to leave each others company. Harry looked out the window and noticed it was nearing his favorite time of the day. The sun was about to set and the sky was turning beautiful shades of pink, orange, and purple.

Ginny noticed his gaze and rose from the bed. She grabbed his hands and pulled him off the chair,

"Follow me." She didn't really give him much of a choice; she gripped his hand tightly and pulled him up the stairs.

She opened the door to a room Harry had never been in before, so he assumed it was either Bill or Charlie's old bedroom. She pulled him inside the small room and closed the door behind them before crossing the room to open a window on the other side. She sat on the window sill so her legs were dangling inside and her head and torso were outside.

Harry rushed to the window and took a hold of her knees, "Ginny! What are you doing? Get back in here before you hurt yourself."

Ginny stared at him through the window, eyebrows raised. Harry released her knees and took a step back.

"Come on, Harry, don't be a baby." She grabbed onto to something on the wall of the house that Harry couldn't see and pulled herself into a standing position. Before Harry could say anything, she jumped up and was out of sight.

"Come on, Harry!" He heard her call. He sat on the sill as she had done and looked up. She was standing on the roof looking down at him expectantly, a large smile on her face.

"Don't tell me Harry Potter is afraid to get on the roof!" She said when Harry still sat there.

"I'm not afraid," Harry muttered. He saw that she had grabbed onto a conveniently placed brick that was sticking out from the others. He had a feeling it was put there on purpose. He grabbed onto it and heaved himself up. His head and shoulders were now above the roof, so he had no problems pulling himself up, but he had no idea how Ginny had done it.

Once he was up, Ginny lay on her back and patted the roof next to her, indicating for him to do the same, which he did. They now had a spectacular view of the setting sun, and the brilliant colors of the sky.

"Wow," was all Harry could manage.

Ginny nodded, "Bill used to take me up here when I was little."

Neither took their eyes away from the sky. As the sun set, it began to get a little cold. He noticed Ginny shiver slightly and wrap her arms around herself. Neither wanted to go back into the house to get a jacket, so they just scooted closer together. Harry's arm wrapped around Ginny's waist, Ginny's head rested on Harry's chest.

"I like it up here," Harry whispered. The sun was completely gone now, only the stars were left. Ginny nodded. Harry glanced down at her. Her head was rising and falling as he breathed, her finger was absentmindedly tracing patterns on his chest as she looked up at the sky. Her blinks were beginning to become longer and longer; she was falling asleep. Harry thought about suggesting they go back inside before they both fell asleep - he was sure it would be more comfortable - but decided not to, he was quite content.

After a few more minuets, Ginny's hand stilled and her breathing evened out and soon after, Harry was asleep as well.

OOOOOOOOO

"Oi! Harry, mate, what are you doing on the roof?" He stuck his head out of the window and noticed Ginny up there with him. "With my sister?!"

This is what Harry and Ginny woke to the next morning. Harry opened his eyes lazily and looked around, trying to get his bearings. He found he was still on the roof with Ginny, who was also starting to stir now that Ron was shouting at them.

While last night Harry had been perfectly comfortable laying on the roof with Ginny, now he wasn't so sure that it was a great idea. His back ached and he had a crick in his neck from the odd position he had been in, and his arm had fallen asleep from being smushed between Ginny and the roof.

Ginny slowly sat up, stretching and rolling her neck, and glared at Ron, who's head was visible poking up to the roof.

"Oh, shove off Ron," she grumbled. "What do you want anyway?"

Ron looked in between Harry and his sister, obviously trying to decide whether to yell some more or tell them why he came up there. Hermione decided for him.

"Get in here, you two. Oh, hush it, Ron," She said, pulling Ron away from the window and waving for the two on the roof to come in.

Harry watched Ginny go to the side of the roof, step down onto the brick and then onto the window sill and jump into the room expertly. He followed, but not quite as gracefully as he would've liked. As he was jumping through the window, his foot got caught on the outside and he more fell-and-rolled than hopped. Hermione, Ron and Ginny all cracked up laughing as Harry stood and righted his glasses, which had been knocked askew by his fall.

"Shut up." Harry glared at his friends. Hermione nodded and waved them out of the room and into the kitchen, a large grin still on her face. Ron and Ginny were still chuckling by the time they all sat down around the table.

Hermione pushed a copy of the Daily Prophet across the table to Harry. He glanced at it, then back at her, confused.

She sighed, exasperated, "Read the front page."

Harry looked at the newspaper again, this time seeing his name flashing across the front in large black letters.

**Harry Potter is Back in the Wizarding World! **

It went on to explain what they thought was Harry's life story, how he defeated Voldemort, then disappeared, how everyone thought he was dead, including his friends and family. At the bottom there was a picture of him and Ron at the pub they had visited the day before.

"The waiter at the pub, I reckon." Ron said, gesturing to the picture.

Harry nodded, "Well they sure didn't waste any time, now, did they?"

He pushed the paper away from him.

"It was going to happen sooner or later. Probably much later than anyone realized. People have been waiting four years for this. You couldn't stay anonymous forever." Hermione reasoned.

"Yeah and they didn't say anything bad about you like they used to. Everyone is just happy you're alive." Ginny added. She had taken the paper when Harry pushed it away from himself and was now scanning through the article.

Harry nodded, but still didn't look too happy. "I just hate being followed and stared at everywhere I go. That's why I left in the first place."

Ginny placed a hand on his shoulder. "You know by leaving you only delayed this. You didn't, and can't stop it from happening. People love you. You saved the world, and now you have to deal with it. No more running away."

Harry nodded, "Yeah, yeah."

"And," Hermione added, pointing a finger at him across the table, "no brooding, either. You can't stay in your room all day and sulk around."

Ron smiled at Hermione. Harry never understood why he liked it so much when she was bossy. Good thing, though. If he didn't like her bossy, he wouldn't like her most of the time.

Harry nodded and looked down at the table. Everyone around him chuckled at the familiarity of the situation. Harry just glared again and everyone felt like they were all back at Hogwarts, even if only for the moment.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Hermione said no brooding, I believe." Ginny said, poking her head into Harry's room at the Burrow. He was laying on his bed, throwing a small, green, fuzzy ball up and down.

"I'm not brooding. I'm relaxing," Harry said dryly.

Ginny rolled her eyes and walked over to his bed. She used her Chaser tuned reflexes and caught the ball midair.

"You most definitely are brooding. And what the hell is this thing?" She asked, examining the little green ball closely.

Harry chuckled and sat up, leaning against the headboard. "It a tennis ball." Ginny stared at him like he was crazy.

"Muggles are weird," was all she said. She tossed the ball back to Harry, who resumed throwing it to himself, this time bouncing it off the wall.

"Can I ask you something?" Ginny sat on the bed next to Harry.

"Of course."

"Why is it so bad that people know you're back? I mean, I know they're annoying and you don't like attention, but they're just happy you're alive."

Harry caught the ball and held it, thinking. "Yeah, I know. Which is why it's annoying. I'm not anything special. People shouldn't be happier about me coming back than any other person they've never met before."

Ginny sighed and Harry threw the ball again.

"That's the thing, though Harry, you are something special. You killed Tom Riddle. You know that big, scary dark wizard everyone was kind of bummed about for a while there." She nudged his knee with her own.

It was Harry's turn to roll his eyes. "You, Ron and Hermione killed him just as much as I did."

"Not technically, but ok. But we didn't disappear for four years afterward. People have already had their fill of us."

Harry groaned, "See, I knew that was a bad idea!"

Ginny looked sideways at him as they both chuckled. He looked different than he did when he left. Less damaged. When he laughed, it looked like he was actually enjoying himself, not forcing it so the people around him wouldn't get suspicious. Maybe leaving had actually been good for him. Maybe it had given him the time he needed to cope with everything before people started pointing cameras at him and bombarding him with questions. In that moment, any part of Ginny that hadn't completely forgiven Harry for leaving was gone.


	7. Chapter 7

**Alright so here is chapter seven! It still took a pretty long time, but not as long as the last, so there's been improvement! And it's a long one too... So, I have a little bit of chapter eight written, but not a lot I can't really tell you when that's going to be up, but just know that it is in progress. **

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The next few weeks went by as smoothly as they could. Harry ventured out of the house on several occasions – mostly because he was forced to by Hermione and Ginny – and it seemed that people were finally starting to get a little used to him being back. Everyone still noticed, but instead of running up to him and hugging him tightly, telling him how happy they were he was alive, they merely pointed and whispered to their friends.

Harry supposed he would just have to get used to it. After a while he realized his friends were right; people weren't going to leave him alone no matter what he did.

Harry wandered down the stairs of the unusually quiet Burrow. He was the only who was staying there besides Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Ginny had her own place in Diagon Alley, as did Ron and Hermione. He would be staying with them, but Mrs. Weasley insisted he stay at the Burrow. She would never get to see him otherwise, she told him.

"Good morning, dear." Greeted Mrs. Weasley when Harry reached the bottom of the rickety staircase.

"Morning Mrs. Weasley."

She hopped up off her chair and began pulling pots and pans down and waving her wand around, summoning various items. "What would you like for breakfast, dear?" She asked over her shoulder.

"Oh, you don't have to cook for me. Toast is perfectly fine." He protested.

Mrs. Weasley scoffed. "I'm not feeding you toast as a meal. No wonder you are so thin." She turned back to the stove, "Toast for breakfast," she mumbled to herself.

Harry sat at the table, resigned to the fact that he could not change her mind. and waited for his breakfast. Just as Mrs. Weasley was finishing up, a loud crack sounded from the front yard and Ginny entered the kitchen moments later.

"Morning Mum, Harry." She said, sitting at the table opposite of Harry.

"Oh, it's so good to see you, honey!" Mrs. Weasley said excitedly, putting pause on her frantic cooking to kiss her daughter on the head. "See, Harry, I knew it was a good idea making you stay here, now I get all kinds of visitors!" she resumed cooking.

OOOOOOOOO

"Where the hell are we?" Ben asked no one in particular as he looked at a map, flipping it this way and that, trying to figure out where they were supposed to be going.

"I have no idea," Emily replied, nervously twisting a ring around on her left hand. "This was a stupid idea, Jake. All we know is he grew up in a place called Little Whinging. I don't even know where that is, or if he still even lives there, or-"

She was cut off by a quick peck on the lips by Jake. "Relax. We're going to find him. It can't be that hard."

"'Can't be that hard'? We are in a foreign country and none of us know what we're doing. Harry said he hated his aunt and uncle, there's no way he still lives there. And he's a wizard," she whispered this word, looking around to make sure no one heard their conversation, "who knows where they might all be."

"Aha!" Ben exclaimed, smiling proudly at the map, "Found it! It's not too far away; about twenty miles north of here."

"Ok, and how are we going to get twenty miles north of here?"

"Well, someone's just a Debbie Downer today," Jake teased, "why don't we just drive? They rent out cars here, right?"

Emily rolled her eyes, "I don't know about you, but I don't think it would be very fun driving on the wrong side of the road."

"There's got to be trains or taxis or something that will get us there. Oh, hey look, we can ask this guy," Ben walked up to a man who was passing by walking his dogs. Emily and Jake sat and watched as Ben conversed with the man for a few minutes before he returned.

"Alright, so there's a train station called First Great Western a mile down that way," he pointed down the road, "which will take us straight to Little Whinging. I'm sure we can find our way from there, right?" He looked to Emily for approval.

She sighed and nodded, "Yea, I guess. Let's go." Emily stalked off in front of them.

"What are you getting yourself into, man?" Ben joked, smiling at Jake and grabbing his backpack off of the table they had been occupying as Jake grabbed both his and Emily's. .

Jake shrugged and smiled in Emily's direction, "I don't know."

"Are you guys coming or not?" Emily called back to them, standing on the sidewalk with her hands on her hips, giving them a very stern look.

"Yeah we're coming, cool your jets missy," Jake replied, winking at her. The corners of her lips tugged up, but she held her stern look well.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Finally! We're here!" Emily threw her arms up in the air and let out a relieved sigh.

"It was only a mile, Emily. We've been walking for fifteen minutes." Ben told her.

She ignored his comment and kept smiling at the large building in front of them. They entered the bustling train station and looked around for where they were supposed to go. Jake pointed to a large desk with lines of people in front of it and a board with times and train numbers above it.

They waded through the crowd and stood in line for almost ten minutes before they reached the desk and bought their tickets. They were told the next train left in twenty minutes, so they headed toward a little concession stand to get some lunch before the train got there.

"What are we going to do once we get there?" Emily asked and took a bite out of her sandwich.

Ben and Jake both shrugged.

"Great ideas, guys, thanks for all of your input." She said sarcastically.

Ben rolled his eyes, "What's gotten into you today?"

Emily sighed and rubbed her face with her hands. "I don't know. Sorry I've been such a jerk, I'm just tired and nervous about this whole thing. I mean, what if Harry doesn't want to see us? We're just barging in and he doesn't even know we're coming. He has a whole other life here and we know nothing about it. What if he's busy or has other things to do?"

Jake put and arm around her and pulled her closer to him, "He's going to want to see us, Em. And if he has other things to do, we'll find the time to hang out. It's going to be fine. I'm sure he misses us as much as we've missed him." Emily nodded into his shoulder and he kissed the top of her head. Ben stared at them, bewildered, and shook his head, he still wasn't quite used to them acting like a couple.

"It's time to go," Ben said, glancing at his watch, "train leaves in ten minutes."

Jake and Emily nodded, stood, and began gathering their things. Once they made it onto the train, they searched around to find an empty compartment. It didn't take very long; it wasn't a very big train and not a lot of people were on it.

"Do we even know what we're looking for once we get there?" Emily asked.

"His aunt and uncle." Jake answered. He was leaning back in one of the seats, his hands behind his head, his eyes closed.

"No shit, Sherlock," Ben threw a pickle from his sandwich at Jake, which landed on his face. Jake cracked on eye open to glare at Ben before he peeled the pickle off his cheek and stuck it in his mouth. Ben chuckled, Emily stared at him disgustedly. "Seriously, though, how are we going to find his aunt and uncle." Jake was effectively tuning them out, so the question was directed to Emily.

"Well, we know their names are Vernon and Petunia Dursley, right? So we can look them up in the phone book or something," she suggested.

Ben nodded, "Better than nothing."

About half an hour later the train stopped and the conductor came over the intercom saying they were in Little Whinging. Emily shook Jake awake and they all got off the train. Once on the street they looked around for anywhere that they could find a phone bookphonebook. Not too far away from the station, Emily noticed a public telephone where there was sure to be one. There was.

They all squeezed tightly into the little booth and Emily began flipping through the pages of the phone bookphonebook. "There are fifteen Dursley's in Surrey, but only one with the initials 'V' and 'P', so I think we've found our people," she said excitedly, "Number 4 Privet Drive."

It only took about twenty minutes to get to Privet Drive and it didn't take long at all to find number 4. Now the three of them stood on the doorstep apprehensively, debating in hushed voices over who should knock.

"I'll do it!" Emily finally gave in. She knocked on the door three times and they all took a step back and waited. The door was promptly opened by an older woman with neatly curled brown hair and a very long neck. She was wearing a white button down shirt with a very crisp black skirt that went down to her knees. She looked at the three young adults on her porch with disdain, as if she knew why they were there.

"Are you Petunia Dursley?" Jake finally choked out; after it was made clear she wasn't going to greet them. Petunia gave a quick nod. "Uh, ok then. We're looking for Harr-" he was cut off by a hiss from Petunia. He stopped talking immediately, his eyes widened, wondering what he had said that made her do that.

Petunia stepped back from the door and motioned them inside with a quick jerk of her head. BeforeAs she closed the door she glanced up and down the street, as if making sure no one had been around to see them. She stalked down the hall into the kitchen. Unsure of what to do, Emily, Jake and Ben stood in the hallway nervously.

"Well, come on then," Petunia said from inside the kitchen. They hurried down the hallway into the kitchen, which was very neat and clean. Everything was in its place, not one thing out of line. There was a man at the table, who couldn't have been any older than them, and was about the size of all three of them put together - times two. He was shoveling food into his mouth with his eyes glued to TV next to the table. They did their best not to stare.

"I am Petunia Dursley, this is my son Dudley." She motioned to the large man. They all nodded their hellos.

"We know that you haven't talked to him in quite a while, but do you happen to know where Harry is?" Ben asked, cutting right to the chase. He had the feeling Petunia didn't feel much like chatting.

Petunia pursed her lips at the sound of her nephews name, "I don't know for sure, but he used to spend his summers at some house in Ottery St. Catchpole. He was with a family of redheads that destroyed my living room." She looked very upset about this, "He never mentioned any other friends, so he could possibly be there. But like I said, I don't know."

Emily nodded, "Do you know how to get there? Or if there is any way we can contact him? We aren't wizards, like he is." Petunia's eyes bulged at the word 'wizards' and she hissed again, even though they were in the house and no one could hear them.

"I don't know how to contact him or where the house is. I have spoken to that boy in five years."

"Mum," Dudley said, tearing his eyes away from the TV for a moment, "Didn't Harry leave an emergency contact or something? You know, just in case?"

The three turned to Dudley, "An emergency contact?" Jake asked, "Who?"

He shrugged his massive shoulders, "I dunno; some redhead weirdo. He left an address so we would have a way to contact him if whoever it was we were hiding from found us again or something. The freak with bowler hat told us about it. Don't remember his name..."

Emily beamed, "Really? Do you have it? Can we see it?" She looked back and forth between mother and son.

Petunia finally spoke, "Yes, very well then." She left the room for a moment and returned with a piece of paper with the words 'the Burrow' on it.

Jake looked at the little piece of paper and smiled, "Alright, we've got a destination, lets go."

Petunia shook her head, "Oh no, you can't go there. He told us that people who are normal can't get there, he would have to take you." She looked oddly pleased at the fact their little adventure wasn't going very well.

"Alright. Can I borrow a pen and some paper?" Emily asked through gritted teeth and a fake smile. It was obvious Petunia was getting on her nerves.

Petunia looked annoyed that she had to accommodate these unwelcome guests, but found a pen and paper regardless.

Emily quickly scribbled a note down on the paper and folded it up. She copied down the address from the little piece of paper and turned to Petunia.

"You won't mind if I use your mailbox, will you?" She asked a little too sweetly, not waiting for an answer.

She headed down the hallway and out the front door, leaving Jake and Ben to stand awkwardly with Petunia in the kitchen. She placed the piece of paper in the mailbox, not sure what to do. She put the flag up, as if to inform the mailman that there was mail to be sent, shrugged and walked back to the house. Just as she was opening the front door to come back inside, a shriek sounded from the kitchen. They all hurried back to find Petunia cowering behind her son, who was trying to get away from the window while still eating and never taking his eyes off the television.

The cause of panic was a rather large, brown owl, which was now sitting on top of the Dursely's pristine counter .

"You have got to be kidding me," Ben laughed. He looked to Emily for the note. She quickly ran outside to the mailbox to grab it. She left the flag up, sure it would annoy Petunia, no matter how small the task was.

"How are we going to attach it?" Jake asked.

"There's a little pouch thing on it's leg. We could put it in that." Emily suggested, pointing to a small leather pouch tied to the birds leg.

Ben nodded,and walked closer to the bird and reached out towards it with both hands, trying to grab its leg. The owl snapped at the note and grabbed it in his beak. Ben jerked his hand away and took a few quick steps backwards. The owl immediately took off out of the window it had come in through. Once it was gone, Petunia emerged from behind her son and promptly shut every window in the house.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Here you go, dears," Mrs. Weasley said, placing plates of food in front of Harry and Ginny. She fixed a plate for herself and joined them at the table.

"Oh mum, you're getting an owl," Ginny, who was facing the window, said. She got up to open the window for the owl to fly through. It landed on the window sill and Ginny took the piece of paper out of its mouth. She dug around in her pockets and deposited some Knuts into the pouch on its leg.

"Look at this parchment, it's really weird," she showed the letter to Harry and her mother, smiling.

Harry's brow furrowed, "Let me see that," Ginny handed him the note and he examined it. "This is Muggle paper," he told them, unfolding and reading the short note.

"I don't believe this." A smile was growing on his face.

"Who's it from?" Ginny asked. He handed her the paper and stood from the table.

"I've got to go to Surrey. I'll be back soon." He walked out the front door, spun around and Apparated away, leaving behind two very confused Weasley women.

He arrived in the freshly cut, green lawned backyard of a place he thought he'd never come to again. He stood in there for a few moments debating on what to do. While he really wanted to see his friends, he didn't want to see Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.

When Dedalus Diggle told him five years ago that he was going to enchant the mailbox to recognize letter's that were meant to be sent to Harry, just in case his aunt and uncle needed to reach him for some reason, he never thought it would actually have gone to any use. Especially by three Americans he thought he wouldn't be seeing again for a long time.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"So, what do we do now?" Jake asked.

Ben shrugged, "Wait, I guess." Petunia did not look very happy about this. She had returned from closing the windows looking flushed and severely annoyed. She was now very quiet, eyingeyeing the three with distaste.

Ten grueling minutes of a silent Petunia glaring daggers at them later there was a loud crack and the five people in the kitchen jumped, although Dudley's attention remained fixed to the TV.

The back door opened slowly and Harry's head poked through. His eyes quickly scanned over Petunia and Dudley and landed on his friends. A smile began to form on his face. .

"Harry!" Emily squealed and launched herself across the room at him.

"Hey, Emily." He hugged her back tightly.

"Alright, Em, save some of him for the rest of us." Jake said, pulling her off and giving Harry a comically big hug, rocking back and forth.

When Jake was done, Harry turned to Ben and gave him a hand shake and a pat on the back. Ben wasn't too fond of hugs like Jake was.

After Harry was done greeting his friends, he turned his gaze to the rest of the kitchen. He saw Dudley first, sitting at the table watching TV and his jaw almost dropped. He couldn't believe he was still there. He was practically in the same spot he had been in when Harry had left when he was seventeen. He shook his head in disbelief.

Then he saw Aunt Petunia. She looked the same, except for a little bit of gray in her hair. And she wasn't looking at him with complete hatred, only minor disgust. Harry nodded hello to her and she nodded curtly back.

"You might want to get your friends out of here soon, Vernon will be home soon," she motioned to the clock above the stove.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, we should get going. I think I'm going to have to take all of you separately, I've never side Apparated three people at once before."

His three friends nodded and headed out the back door, Harry right behind them.

"Harry," Aunt Petunia called as he was closing the door behind him. He paused and looked at her, waiting for her to continue. She opened her mouth like she was going say something, but closed it again and shook her head.

Harry nodded and gave a small polite wave. Then he closed the door all the way and stepped out into the backyard.

"So who wants to go first?"

They looked at him apprehensively. "How exactly are we going to get there?" Ben voiced what was on all of their minds.

"It's called Apparating. I'll Apparate you all to the Burrow, which is where the Weasley's live. Ginny and her mum are there right now." Harry explained.

"Ok, uh, I'll go first I guess," Emily volunteered. Harry nodded and held out his arm for her to take.

"Now, this is going to be a little uncomfortable, like being squeezed through a little tube." Emily nodded, her eyes wide and her hands were shaking a bit when she grabbed his arm. "I've never done this with a Muggle before. I hope it works." Harry added almost as an afterthought.

"What?!" was all Emily had time to say before Harry turned on the spot and they were off.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"Harry James Potter!"

Mrs. Weasley turned to Ginny at the sink where she was putting the breakfast dishes to be washed by an enchanted sponge.

"That's not Hermione is it? It doesn't sound like her. Maybe she has a cold."

Ginny laughed and stood up to look out of the window, "No mum, it's Emily." She was smiling broadly as she hurried outside.

"I cannot believe you did that – whatever that was – and you weren't sure it would work!" Ginny heard as she neared the two.

"Well, it did didn't it? I don't see why you're complaining." Harry defended.

"Because what if it hadn't worked?" She put a hand to her forehead and scrunched up her face. . "I'm starting to feel a little dizzy." Emily's voice had gone from strong and confident to whispery and slow, successfully cutting off her tirade.

"Yeah, that tends to happen the first few times." Ginny said, coming up behind Emily. Harry smiled at her over Emily's head.

"Ginny! Oh, it's so good to see you," the two girls embraced tightly.

"Alright, Gin, you get her inside she probably needs to sit down, I have to get Ben and Jake." Harry said. Ginny nodded and lead Emily into the house.

"Mum, this is Emily, one of Harry's friends from America." Ginny introduced as she sat Emily down at the table.

"Hello dear," Mrs. Weasley greeted sweetly. She was folding the laundry, which really consisted of her taking clothes out of a basket, dropping them on the table and the various clothing items folding themselves into neat, organized piles.

"Hi," Emily was awestruck. Her eyes flickered from the automatically folding laundry, to the sponge washing the dishes by itself, to the Weasley clock on the wall, her mouth hanging open slightly.

"Is she ok?" Mrs. Weasley asked Ginny quietly.

"Muggle," she mouthed. Mrs. Weasley's mouth made an 'o' of understanding and she returned to her laundry. Ginny's gaze shifted to the door where she found another bewildered newcomer.

"Ben!"

Ben's gaze tore away from the shoes that were lining themselves up nicely by the door and onto Ginny. She motioned for him to come in, while introducing him to her mother.

"Hey," he slowly walked over the table and sat next to Emily.

Harry quickly appeared in the doorway with Jake, who had a similarly awed look on his face, which was tinted a little green from the Apparation. Harry led him to a seat next to Ben where he plopped down and gazed around the room.

"This is amazing, Harry." Emily breathed.

"Well, it's not mine; it's Mrs. Weasley's." Harry gestured toward the motherly woman standing near the windows, looking at the new arrivals with a smile.

"Oh. Right. Your house is amazing." Emily told Mrs. Weasley, gazing around the room again. "I wish my laundry did itself," she waved towards the neatly piled clothes now jumping back into the basket. Mrs. Weasley chuckled.

"Mrs. Weasley, this is Emily, Ben and Jake," Harry said, pointing to each in turn, "they're my friends from America."

Mrs. Weasley nodded warmly to them.

"You all are welcome to stay as long as you'd like. We have plenty of empty rooms."

"Oh, no, we couldn't impose like that. I doubt you really want three strangers staying in your house. We can just find a hotel somewhere nearby." Ben protested.

"Nonsense. You will stay here. Any friend of Harry's is a friend of ours. Now, you all look much too thin, why don't I make you something to eat?"

Jake looked pleased.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"Do you know what they're doing here?" Ginny asked Harry quietly. They were in a back corner of the kitchen watching while Mrs. Weasley piled food onto plates and all but forced it down the newcomer's throats. "I'm glad they're here but I'm just curious."

Harry shook his head and frowned slightly, "No, I have no idea why they're here. I hope it's nothing bad."

"Atta boy, always looking on the bright side." Ginny said with a smile, leaning her shoulder against his playfully. Harry chuckled and didn't back away.

"Old habits die hard, I suppose." He looked down at her with a smirk.

"Harry? Why don't you show your friends around while Ginny helps me clean up?" Harry and Ginny halted their conversation and turned toward the expectant Mrs. Weasley.

"Of course, Mrs. Weasley. Come on guys." Harry waved for his friends to follow him outside. He decided he would show them the gardens before it got too dark.

Ginny helped her mother gather the plates from the table and place them in the sink where the enchanted brush would scrub them clean.

"When I said we get all kinds of visitors when Harry is here, this is not really what I meant." She told her daughter, a twinkle in her eye. Ginny laughed and nodded in agreement.

"I just can't wait for Ron and Hermione to meet them."

OOOOOOOOOO

**Now tell me what you think! And much much thanks to my betas suferdude8225 and blacktag189! :)**


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